Why The Grassroots Burden Cannot Be Reduced

All along,the grassroots government under the burden of formalism and excessive work,which makes the grassroots cadres unbearable.To this end,the central government is determined to reduce the burden on grassroots level and establish 2019 as the “grassroots-level burden reduction year”.However,the field investigation of Z Town in the Pearl River Delta,found that since the “grassroots-level burden reduction year”,formalism has remained serious,and excessive work appears to decrease,but actually increases,so the burden reduction is not effective.To this phenomenon,there has not been direct and systematic discussion in the academic world.The media’s mainstream view blame it on the subjective factors such as the view of political performance,the view of responsibility,the cultivation of party spirit,and the style of work,that is,they tend to “view of style and concept”.This article believes that this view has some explanatory power,but it is not enough to fully answer the confusion.Therefore,this paper proposes an explanatory framework of “add weight-type burden reduction”,pointing out that“ grassroots-level burden reduction year ” only reduces the means of working,while didn’t reduce the responsibility,which just cures the symptoms,not the disease.The root of impeding the burden reduction of the grassroots actually in the system.Specifically,there are three reasons for the increasing responsibilities of the government and the increasing pressure on the grass-roots level.First,from the outside to the inside,the administrative state is expanding,and the forward-looking leadership of the mission-type party and the miscellaneous concern of the unlimited liability government,as well as the trouble of omnipotent government functions’ transfer,further exacerbate the trend of government function expansion.Second,from top-down perspective,“pressure-type”system layer by layer transmits pressure to the grassroots government,and the unexpected results of technical governance and fragmentation administration further exacerbate the pressure transmitted to the grassroots government.Third,from the bottom up,under the drive of avoidance and competition logic,the grassroots government also actively increases the burden to themselves,and the increasing of compliance cost further exacerbate the burden themselves take in.Only by systematically cracking the factors which digest the effort of burden reduction,can we really reduce the burden at the grassroots level.That is,strengthen the leadership of Party construction,which can overcome departmental barriers;carry out “whistle and report” to strengthen grass-roots linkage;implement the list of rights and responsibilities and promote resource sinking;accelerate the transfer of functions,and create a governance pattern of CO-construction and CO-governance and sharing.