Research On The Transformation Of Township Government Functions

Township government is at the end of the five-level administrative system of "central-provincial-city-county-township" in China,which is the foundation of the national governance system.The function of township government is the core and soul of township government governance,which must be changed with the development of economy and society.The issue of "agriculture,countryside and farmers" has always been the top priority of the Party's work.The Nineteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China(CPC)made a major decision-making plan to implement the strategy of rural revitalization,and took it as the general grasp of the work of "agriculture,countryside and farmers" in the new era.Township governments are the most concrete implementers and frontier implementers of the various tasks of the strategy.This puts forward new requirements and opportunities for the transformation of township government functions.Since the reform of rural taxes and fees,the academic circles have done a lot of research on the transformation of the functions of township governments.However,in the process of rural revitalization,there is still a lack of pertinent research on how the township government can change its functions with the times,achieve "effective governance" and play a key role,which is insufficient to provide sufficient theoretical guidance for practice.Therefore,it is urgent to carry out a new systematic study on this issue.Under this background,this paper uses government function theory,new public service theory and multi-center governance theory to sort out the representative views of township government function transformation at home and abroad through literature research.Then,it summarizes the transformation process of township government functions since the founding of the PRC,and makes a clear positioning of township government functions in the strategy of rural revitalization,namely,macro-guiding function,environmental governance function,cultural construction function,social management function and public service function.Taking S Town in Henan Province as an example,based on the detailed data obtained from social investigation,empirical analysis shows that: In recent years,through the transformation of functions,the town has continued to promote economic development,urban construction has continued to improve,public services have been significantly strengthened,social management has been innovated,and the ecological environment has gradually improved.However,at the same time,there are some problems such as deviation of function orientation,strategic performance of functions,extensive means of functions,low administrative efficiency,and misplaced relationship between township and village.The reasons are mainly the lack of equal rights and responsibilities of township governments,lack of financial resources,lack of cooperation networks,poor functions of village self-governing organizations,and inadequate growth mechanisms for township cadres.Based on this,a feasible path for functional transformation is proposed: establishing a clear and reasonable county-township system of responsibility,building a multi-functional network led by the government,improving the performance appraisal and supervision accountability system,strengthening the promotion of democratic autonomy at the grass-roots level,and building a growth cadre surroundings.There are two innovations in this paper.First,the implementation of the Rural Revitalization Strategy as the research background,endowed the township government with a new era significance and practical requirements for the transformation of functions;The second is to select S Town,a large agricultural town in Henan Province,which is listed as a key town in China,as a case study.The town has distinct characteristics,and the research results are more promotional.To some extent,it makes up for the lack of micro-empirical research on the transformation of township government functions.