Research On Asian Formal Institutions In Rural Governance

Since the Constitution meaningfully affirmed the villagers' committee as the rural autonomous organization in 1982,the villagers' autonomy has made remarkable achievements,and the important role of a stable rural society in the high-speed development of the country has been verified.However,after more than 30 years of implementation,we must pay attention to the serious predicament of rural governance.Firstly,as the carrier of rural governance,there are institutional conflicts and contradictions in villagers' autonomy.Secondly,rural governance has been challenged by the changes of national institution.Finally,rural governance has been suffering the impact of urbanization.In the new era,the importance of rural governance to the national governance system is increasing.How to solve the problems above in a targeted way and improve the performance of rural governance have become a subject that with great practical significance.This paper focuses on the problems currently existing in rural governance,and takes the innovative autonomous practice in Q village as the case.Trying to provide some experience for the effective governance of villages in China,which are in the the process of revitalization,the deep operation logic and theory basis of the case will be analyzed with the related knowledge about public management,political science and anthropology,and through the methods of literature research and field reaearch,like questionnaires,participant observation,in-depth interview,and so on.Located in the southeast of Pudong New Area,Q village is under the jurisdiction of H town,facing the contradiction between strong geographical advantage and weak economic foundation.The case,or the "1+1+X" autonomy mechanism to be exact,has been running in Q village with the “two-way” impetus since 2011.In the “down-top” persrctive,the impetus is composed by the pressure to solve problems,the thrust to improve mechanism,and the villagers' claim to participate.In the “top-down” perspective,the impetus is composed by the precious opportunity provided by national institutional reform,the innovation needs specified by the survey of higher Party committee and government,and the rural environmental enhancement required by the government works.This mechanism contains an institution named “the rules and operating guidelines of villagers' autonomy”,as well as the adjustments of related enforcing departments.It has performed well in recent years.What the case of Q village means is not only the optimization of work procedures,but also the exploration of governance mechanism under the dual effects of the state and society.This paper refines this governance mechanism as the sub-formal institution and its operation system,and believes that this mechanism has better governance performance because it focuses on the fundamental problems of village.Theoretically speaking,the sub-formal institution is different from the formal institution and the informal institution because of the role of “sub”.It absorbs the strengths and advantages of formal institution and informal institution,and becomes an institution in between.This paper defines it as an institutional text that exists in a micro community(in this paper,refers to specific villages),with the resolution of customary affairs as the main content.It gains recognition of the community members through democratic consultation process with the leadership of formal authorities,so it is generally binding on the members.The sub-formal institution has implemented the national legal system on the top,sublimated the traditional local customs on the bottom,interacted with the enforcing deparments on the middle,and reflected the changes of rural society in the future.What are behind these four operation mechanisms are four logics: The leadership of the Party;the participation of villagers;the standardization of informal institutions,and the dynamic update of the institution,which guarantee the normative development of the sub-formal institution.What's more,the application of the sub-formal institution needs to notice the factors of content and subject,communication and execution,finance and risk control.