Editor's note
Recently, the "Current Leaders" column on the official website of the Central Party School ( National School of Administration) was updated to show that Gong Weibin, who previously served as the director of education (deputy ministerial level) and party committee secretary of the Central Party School ( National School of Administration), In April this year, he assumed the new position of deputy school (department) director and party committee secretary of the Central Party School (National School of Administration). Gong Weibin was born in Changfeng, Anhui in 1965. He started working in July 1984. He graduated from the Department of Sociology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences with a major in Applied Sociology. He has a postgraduate degree, a doctorate in law, and is a professor. Previously, Gong Weibin published an article "Comprehensively Promoting Grassroots Governance in Rural Revitalization" in the 3rd issue of "Administrative Management Reform" in 2022. The second and fifth parts are excerpted below for readers' reference.
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The foundation of rural grassroots governance has undergone tremendous changes
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, driven by the implementation of the new urbanization strategy, winning the battle against poverty and comprehensively implementing the rural revitalization strategy, the foundation of rural governance in my country has undergone tremendous changes change.
(1) The openness of villages continues to increase. China has a vast territory. The natural conditions and development levels of different regions in the south and north, east, central and west are very different. Therefore, the history, culture, economic and social conditions of village communities
are also very different. Even within the same county (city), due to the natural endowments and location differences of the villages, the development levels between villages also vary greatly. Although village forms and endowments vary in different regions, in the era of small-scale peasant economy, the production and lifestyle of residents in a village are highly homogeneous, with less contact with the outside world, limited information, and relatively conservative ideas among villagers.
With the improvement of urbanization level, villages are becoming more and more open. The young generation who have gone to school and mastered scientific and cultural knowledge are no longer willing to return to the village life like their parents. Over the past 40 years of reform and opening up, migrant workers have experienced the intergenerational transition of leaving their hometowns and returning to their hometowns. The older generation of migrant workers born before the reform and opening up , many of them returned to their hometowns from cities and other places to work and live after working and doing business for many years; while the vast majority of people born after the reform and opening up firmly left the villages and went to cities and places. Find employment and development opportunities in economically developed areas and places with many employment opportunities. The boundaries of villages are becoming increasingly blurred, and they are no longer a fence that limits and blocks villagers from contacting the outside world. While the exchanges between villagers and the outside world are increasing, due to the implementation of the household contract responsibility system, each household in the village is busy with its own production and life, and there are few opportunities for joint labor and production. Exchanges and exchanges are far less frequent than in the collectivization era. . Therefore, the openness of the village has brought about two different consequences. One is to strengthen the connection with the outside world; the other is to trigger changes in the internal structure of the village. The heterogeneity among villagers increases and the homogeneity decreases. The blood, geographical and professional ties within the village The connection weakened.
The forces that promote the opening and expansion of village boundaries are: first, the reform of the household registration system , which has lowered the threshold and cost for farmers to move, giving farmers the right and ability to go out of the countryside and choose the work and lifestyle they want. The second is the intervention of administrative and market forces to promote the expansion of rural functions and drive land transfer, land consolidation and changes in its functions. In the construction of beautiful countryside, village reconstruction and administrative village dissolution and merging have caused the physical boundaries of villages to constantly change. The opening and changing of village boundaries makes the meaning of rural areas increasingly blurred. Where is the countryside and what should the countryside look like have become ambiguous issues. Industrialization and urbanization driven by the dual forces of market and administration have resulted in increasing differences in village form and internal differences. For example, there are villages in economically developed areas and villages in underdeveloped areas; there are villages near towns, villages close to the seat of government, villages with convenient transportation, villages rich in resources, and villages in remote areas. Villages develop in the process of opening up, and the gap also widens in the process of opening up.
(2) The trend of aging and hollowing out of the village population is intensifying.
One consequence of the transition from closed villages to openness is the massive outflow of rural people, especially the young and middle-aged labor force who go out to work, do business, and run enterprises. The permanent population of the vast majority of villages is mainly 60 years old. Elderly people above.What was once called "386199" (the "38" in "386199" refers to women, "61" refers to children, and "99" refers to the elderly) has also undergone great changes in the population structure. Couples or the whole family go out to work or do business. It has become a common phenomenon. It has become normal for young people to leave the village to study in the city. There are also some parents, especially young mothers, who accompany their children to study outside. All these circumstances have led to a large number of young people in the village. Young adults under the age of 40 stay in the village mainly to take care of their sick parents, those who are in poor health or have difficulty finding work outside the home. Interview data show that the average population of rural households across the country is less than 4 people, indicating that there are fewer and fewer families with many children. This indicates that the hollowing out and aging of the rural population will be difficult to change for a long time and will likely intensify further, posing new requirements for rural development and grassroots governance.
(3) Spiritual and cultural needs have become increasingly prominent.
Villages are not only places where people live and live, but also areas where people work and produce. Close interaction in the same field makes it easy for residents in the village to form a community. This community is the rural community. The reality that my country is a "big country with small farmers" determines that the contracted land for rural families is very limited. In most places, the per capita cultivated land of farmers is only more than 1 mu. In places with more, the per capita cultivated land is 4-5 acres, and in places with less, the per capita cultivated land is only a few cents. The income of most rural families mainly depends on migrant work and business. Except for a few mountainous areas and areas where cash crops are grown, agricultural production mainly relies on mechanized sowing and harvesting, and social marketization for production management and services. The labor intensity of agricultural production is greatly reduced, freeing farmers from heavy physical labor in agricultural production. After the village came out, the old people and women who stayed in the village could no longer work hard all day long with their backs to the sky and the loess facing the loess. Due to the low income from growing grain, many farmers are not very enthusiastic about farming, invest less in manpower and material resources, and even abandon their contracted land. As family size decreases, housework also decreases. As economic conditions improve, life is secure, and there is more free time, this makes the need for amateur cultural life more prominent. Influenced by mass media and urban culture, square dance, popular in cities, has entered the countryside and has become an important form of rural cultural activities. Once cultural activities within the village are launched, they will stimulate people's potential needs and drive more people to participate in cultural and entertainment activities.
(4) Awareness of rights continues to increase.
Villagers are relatively active in participating in the village party branch, village committee general election and village-level public affairs. Generally speaking, the general election of the village's "two committees" is held at the same time. The general election of the village party branch comes first. The village party branch secretary, committee members and deputy secretaries are elected, and then the new village committee director and other village committee members are elected. From the interviews, it can be seen that in all types of rural areas, regardless of the number of migrant workers, villagers are highly concerned about and actively participate in the election of the main leaders of the "two committees". Even if they are working and doing business abroad, many villagers will return to the village to vote in the election on election day. Some villagers who cannot return to their hometowns will also express their voting intentions through WeChat groups or by entrusting others to do so. The key to successful election of village party branch secretary, deputy secretary and committee members lies in recommendation and nomination. All localities strictly follow standardized procedures to determine candidates. The election of village party branch secretaries, deputy secretaries and committee members is conducted among party members, while the village committee director and other village committee members are elected by all villagers who are eligible for election. Since the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the village party branch secretary and the village committee director have generally practiced "one shoulder". The village party branch secretary concurrently serves as the village committee director, and the members of the "two committees" hold cross-term positions. This reduces the number of people in the village's "two committees", improves the efficiency of decision-making and deliberation, and reduces the financial burden on the village. All the village party branch secretaries interviewed were elected village committee directors, indicating that the party branch secretaries are recognized by the villagers. The voting rates of villagers participating in the village "two committee" elections are all above 85%, with a few as low as above 60%, and the highest can reach about 95%. Especially in villages with a relatively good collective economy, villagers are very active in running for election as members of the "Two Committees", especially for the position of branch secretary.Although many villagers work and live outside the village all year round and do not live in the village, they are very concerned about the election of the main village leaders, indicating that they still care about the development of the village, and the village is still their material and spiritual support. Generally speaking, the more developed the village economy is, the better the development conditions are, and the higher the enthusiasm of people for political participation. In addition to participating in elections, villagers are also very concerned about village-level public affairs, especially matters involving their own interests. The main manifestations are: firstly, personal demands and opinions and suggestions are directly reported to village cadres; secondly, villager representatives actively participate in villager representative meetings and express their opinions.
Overall, the phenomenon of rural population outflow in various places is serious, rural occupations are diversified, farmers' income sources are diversified, and villagers' social needs are increasing. At the same time, the state has implemented greater support policies for rural areas, invested a large amount of people, money and materials in rural areas, and is committed to promoting the two-way reasonable flow of urban and rural resources. The result is that on the one hand, national public resources are spreading to villages and to grassroots levels; on the other hand, rural populations continue to concentrate outside villages and into cities, impacting the traditional rural grassroots governance model.
The task of rural grassroots governance is still very arduous.
Rural grassroots governance in various parts of our country has achieved positive results and accumulated a lot of useful experience. However, interviews and visits revealed that the methods and methods used to promote grassroots governance in different villages have their own characteristics, and the governance effects vary greatly. Some governance is effective, and some can barely maintain it. The vast majority of villages have low levels of infrastructure construction, operation and maintenance, and even face the dilemma of insufficient funds and unsustainability. Public services and basic people's livelihood are only provided with basic guarantees, and there is still a big gap compared with the villagers' pursuit of a better life. The vast majority of rural elderly people can only receive a monthly pension of more than 100 yuan, which is not enough to maintain their life in old age. Basic medical insurance premiums cost more than 300 yuan per person per year, and a family has to pay more than 1,000 yuan per year. Some low-income farmers report that the burden is heavy. Some families who have not benefited or have benefited less are less enthusiastic about paying. It is difficult for village cadres to collect medical premiums on their behalf. The stability and sustainability of medical insurance are facing challenges. Young adults and children are still leaving the countryside. This interacts with rural education and medical capabilities, infrastructure levels, and the quality of public services. It will further aggravate the hollowing out and aging of the village population, limiting the vitality of village development and facing new difficulties in public life. The talents needed for rural development, especially management talents, are extremely scarce, which brings great difficulties to rural grassroots governance. The cadres of the village "two committees" are generally older, but the number of young reserve cadres who can be trained and used is limited. Some young people working and doing business abroad have the intention to join the party, but they cannot become training targets because they are not in their hometown. In recent years, various localities have sent a large number of first secretaries, village cadres and university student village officials to the countryside to alleviate the pressure of insufficient personnel and capabilities of rural grassroots cadres, and have achieved certain results. However, in the long run, rural revitalization and rural grassroots governance are not effective. The foundation lies in the fact that rural areas have a population with a reasonable structure and a moderate size, as well as a group of young and powerful grassroots governance talents. How to retain rural youth and attract young people to return to their hometowns to participate in rural construction and construction has become a top priority.
Source: "Administrative Management Reform"
Original title: Comprehensive promotion of grassroots governance in rural revitalization
