Series of investigation reports on urban administrative system reform

Executive summary

On the basis of investigation and research, this paper describes the function of the district-level government agencies in China's small and medium-sized cities and the organization of their political organizations and their personnel, and puts forward suggestions for revoking the district-level system in small and medium-sized cities, and specifically lists the reasons for their arguments. It has certain reference value for the reform of the administrative system in China's small and medium-sized cities.

As the forerunner of the reform of the political system, the reform of the urban administrative system is carried out in full and orderly at all levels and aspects. The city is the center of politics, economy and culture in a region. It is a complex system with multiple structures combined and influenced by many factors. The characteristics of the city determine its key role in economic system reform and political system reform. The “Thirteenth National Congress” has made an overall design for urban reform, but many specific steps need to be further explained theoretically and deepened in practice. In order to cope with the progress of the urban administrative system reform, we have conducted some investigations on the establishment and function of the establishment of seven small and medium-sized cities in Changzhou, Wuxi, Suzhou, Yangzhou, Nantong, Yancheng and Huaiyin in Jiangsu Province in the past two years. In the process, I was fortunate to have the support of the “Urban Work Discussion Meeting” organized by more than ten cities in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Anhui, Guizhou, Shandong, Hubei and Inner Mongolia. Through fact-finding and data analysis, we believe that there is no value in the district-level system in small and medium-sized cities, and it is proposed to revoke it as a breakthrough in the reform of the urban administrative system.

I. Functional description of district-level government agencies in small and medium-sized cities

Our survey is from the functional staff of district-level government agencies, because function and its realization are the best measure of the status and role of administrative organizations. The setting of an administrative organization must have and function, and it is an irreplaceable function of other administrative organizations. From the information provided by the seven cities we surveyed and the more than 10 cities in the “Urban Work Seminar”, the functions of the district-level government agencies are basically the same, which can be roughly classified into the following five types:

1. City municipal management function

City municipal management accounts for one-third of the government's workload. The main contents are: construction and maintenance of public infrastructure, including renovation of roads in the streets, maintenance and demolition of residential houses, construction of public toilets, and laying of sewers. , urban garbage, manure treatment, etc.; environmental protection, such as the treatment of "three wastes", the prevention and control of "three evils"; transportation, market management, including the maintenance of traffic order, illegal construction of traffic routes, demolition and cleaning of stacked materials Market price, variety, regulations and management of sales places; urban beautification, leading projects are greening, including the development of green spaces, planting trees, urban sculptures, bonsai flower beds, and the construction of small gardens.

2. City service function

Developing urban social welfare undertakings and providing excellent services to the society is another major aspect of urban function. The work done by the district governments is reflected in: social public welfare undertakings, including the establishment of nursing homes, nurseries, kindergartens, the military care, social relief, welfare of disabled people, resettlement of unemployed people, education, science and technology, health and family planning work. Including small and medium-sized education, district-level hospitals, health station management, scientific and technological exchanges and collaboration, popular science propaganda, and publicity and implementation of the family planning policy; the tertiary industry, including the catering industry, hotel industry, various maintenance businesses and commercial outlets, Self-employed management, consulting industry, etc.

3. City security function

The work of the district government in this area includes: publicity and education in law, social order maintenance, security and security duty; the help of the young people in the street, the teaching, the change of the social comprehensive governance; the mediation of civil disputes; Crime and economic crime activities, etc.

4. Construction of Spiritual Civilization

Although this is not a big function, it is indeed an important task that the district governments are currently focusing on. Including: situation, policy propaganda; "four have", "five-four-three" education; learning English model, advanced learning, creating "three excellent" activities; military and civilian construction of spiritual civilization activities: popular style, such as the construction of public cultural centers, style Activity centers, libraries, and multi-level and multi-type popular cultural and sports activities.

5. Economic management function

Since the focus of the party’s work has shifted to economic construction, economic work has become the central content of urban work. According to the survey, the district governments of all cities pay attention to economic activities, and usually a major person in charge of the government manages the economy. Each district has its own district and street industry. The total annual output value is generally over 10 million yuan, and the high is over 100 million yuan. The management and services of the district government to the urban area depend to a large extent on the development of the district industry.

2. District-level political organization and staffing situation in small and medium-sized cities

The establishment, staffing and interrelationship of district-level institutions is another major goal of our investigation. The survey shows that the organizational structure and staffing of district-level political organizations have the following characteristics.

1. The sparrow is small, the five dirty fears

China's current constitution stipulates that, except for county-level cities, cities can set up districts, as a first-level state power is a grass-roots organization of state institutions. Therefore, the district is equivalent to a county-level institution. The Party Committee, the People's Government, the Standing Committee of the People's Congress, and the People's Political Consultative Conference Committee have four sets of teams, plus a variety of popular political organizations, totaling 40 to 50.

2. Corresponding to the upper and lower, the organization is complex

Due to the long-standing formation of the next corresponding practice in the organization, the district government has a wide variety of institutions. The party committee system has offices, organization departments, propaganda departments, discipline inspection commissions, science associations, personnel departments, retreat committees, and retirement science associations. Popular groups include trade unions, the Communist Youth League, and women's federations. The district government is the largest. There are district government offices, finance departments, civil affairs bureaus, industrial bureaus, urban construction bureaus, cultural and educational departments, health bureaus, labor and management departments, personnel departments, commercial bureaus, industrial and commercial bureaus, judicial departments, public security bureaus, old cadres, and environmental protection. The bureau, the Housing Authority, the Housing Construction Office, the Office of the Patriotic Health Campaign Committee, the Staff Education Office, the Sports Commission, etc., and some districts also have a Planning Commission, a Collaborative Office, a Reform Office, and a number of temporary agencies, such as the five-speaking four-year-old office, and the elderly. More than 10 working committees, greening leading groups, and demolition offices.

3. Staff super editing

The official establishment of each district is generally between 150-200 people. However, due to the fact that various temporary organizations are crowded and people are overstaffed, each district is seriously involved. Each district has transferred a number of temporary staff members from the street committees and district enterprises to work on their behalf. The number of such people is large, accounting for all the work. One third of the staff. The district-level institutions are very large.

3. Reasons for revoking the district-level system in small and medium-sized cities

First, define the concept of small and medium-sized cities. The theoretical standard is that small and medium-sized cities are below 500,000. However, from the general situation of the city, there are big differences in the operation and management of cities with a population of 1 million or more and those with a population of less than 1 million. However, there is no significant difference between 1 million and below, so the city is divided into 1 million cities. More in line with reality. The small and medium-sized cities we are talking about here are cities with a population of less than 1 million.

The question arises from the suspicion of the rationality and value of the district-level system. The original reason is very simple. First, small and medium-sized cities are characterized by dense population, industrial concentration, relatively economic, political, and cultural development. Social problems such as transportation and housing are not as prominent as those in big cities, and their scale is relatively small. What are the characteristics of institutional setting and administrative management in small and medium-sized cities? In the past, little attention was paid to the fact that cities, no matter how big or small, are theoretically not scientific. Some small and medium-sized cities are only equivalent to one district of a big city. Even if the area or population is not as good as a large city, is it necessary to divide several small towns like big cities? Second, some cities have undergone reforms to merge the original three districts or four districts into two districts or even one district, which not only does not affect the management of the city, but also contributes to the overall coordination and function of the city. In some small cities, the population is only 20,000 to 300,000, and there is no suburban county. It is also necessary to set up a so-called "urban area". It is not necessary to add one level. Third, many district leaders and staff complained that they have no power in their hands and that they are awkward at work. They believe that the city leaders refuse to delegate their power and do not pay attention to the work of the district. There seems to be no district in the consciousness of many city leaders we visited. Apart from convening the National People's Congress, the CPPCC meeting or the party congress, the relationship between the municipal leaders and the district is very small, and the relationship with the ministries and commissions and the competent offices is very Close, what is the contradiction? With the above problems, we have carried out a profound analysis of the structure and function of the district, and found the four reasons for the younger brother. It is also the most fundamental and most crucial reason: the district-level political organization, as an integral part of the state political system, does not have Its own independent function. At present, the work done by the district political organization is only an abnormal or abnormal performance of the city.

What is the function of the modern city government? Some people say that it is management. Some people say that it is service. In fact, there is no contradiction. In one sense, it is management. In another sense, it is service. In essence, the role of the city government is to serve the purpose of creating a beautiful and comfortable environment for work, study and life for the residents. However, if roughly divided, the two can still be distinguished, and this distinction has great guiding significance for the setting of urban institutions. Based on this, we made some meaningful adjustments to the functions of the district government described in the previous section, which are classified into two parts: management and service.

The left side of the above table is the main function performed by the current district government. A total of five parts, the right side is the classification of the overall function of small and medium-sized cities based on administrative principles. Once comprehensively adjusted, it is clear that the first major category on the right, the management function, is basically within the scope of national administrative affairs management activities, and is a direct national administrative affairs that requires state administration or intervention. Although this kind of function is reflected in the district government, it should be owned by the municipal government in the scientific sense, because the city is a relatively concentrated whole, whether it is urban development planning or model design, or political, economic, cultural, health, science and technology. The management of administrative affairs such as education is strictly systematic and requires overall consideration. In particular, the overall urban planning is a major function that the city has paid more and more attention to in order to meet the needs of modern development. Man-made into different zones, causing unnecessary segmentation, seriously affecting the realization of the overall function of the city. The above-mentioned various functions are only a nominal or partial and thus deformed realization. If the district government fulfills the urban municipal management function and repairs the public infrastructure, it is only responsible for the renovation and extension of the lanes in the streets and all areas of the district. All the main roads and branch lines are owned by the urban construction and municipal engineering departments: All secondary schools, technical secondary schools, vocational schools, and dry schools are all managed by the municipal government. Only the national small government is responsible for the district government. It is entirely human factors that undermine the systemic nature of education management. The most typical is economic management. The district performs this function nominally, but in reality it only has a very small number of subordinate enterprises. Enterprises with a slightly larger scale and a slightly better economic efficiency are all taken over by the city. Even a small number of such district-owned enterprises should not be managed by the district government in the current way. In the survey, almost all district leaders introduced how they grasped the economy and regarded this as a sign of the transfer of the work center. This is a misunderstanding and, of course, the drawbacks of the current management system. The correct approach should be how the district government creates conditions to provide quality services for economic activities, rather than the leadership of several small factories. The malformation of the functions of the above-mentioned district government is almost in every management. From this, we can explain the question of whether or not the district-level regime should be decentralized, especially since the institutional reforms. District-level political organizations have always complained that they are not a guarantee of power as a first-level state power. They are not only the first-level finance, but also have no independent power in all aspects. Therefore, they have been asked to decentralize the city, and some cities have indeed done so. However, we believe that there is no question of whether to decentralize and break the traditional concept caused by the fait accompli. We can find that the right of the first type of management function on the right side of the above table can not only be delegated to the district, but also must be fully recovered from the district. Go to the city, that is, the management function is turned over.

The second major category on the right side of the above table is the service function, which is a social specific matter. In the past, we rarely distinguished administrative affairs from social affairs. As a result, everything was replaced by the state administrative system, which not only violated the laws of social affairs management activities, but also was one of the important reasons for the huge state administrative institutions. The principle of modern scientific administration requires that state administrative activities should be reduced to a minimum, and social activities that are social affairs should be returned to the society to achieve social self-management.

This article is limited in length and does not provide a theoretical detailed analysis of this issue. From the survey situation, the service function activities, although nominally belonging to the district government, are specifically implemented by the streets and neighborhood committees. For example, the first function of the service category, the social public welfare, is mostly undertaken by the neighborhood committee. Like the nursing homes, nurseries, kindergartens, the cities have been handed over to the streets. The planning of maternity work, civil dispute mediation, situation, policy, legal propaganda, military and civilian construction of spiritual civilization activities, etc. are entirely the street neighborhood committee. That is to say, the second type of function is not performed by the district government, and should be decentralized to the streets and neighborhood committees. This is also scientific in terms of administrative management. So we advocate: decentralization of service functions.

After scientific decomposition, part of the function of the district government was handed over to the city, and part of it was delegated to the neighborhood committee, which itself lost its value.

Fourth, the advantages of revocation of district-level construction in small and medium-sized cities

The above analysis makes the advantages of revoking the district-level system in small and medium-sized cities obvious.

First of all, it is conducive to the overall design and function of the city. The district was cancelled, the artificial block division was eliminated, and the city became a whole, which not only reduced the contradiction between the district and the district, but also provided the possibility for the municipal government to formulate the overall planning and overall consideration for urban management and development. Efficient use of urban functions.

Second, it is conducive to the integrity of the administrative agencies. District-level political organizations originally had many shortcomings, which were manifested in overlapping institutions and different responsibilities, which caused mutual suspicion, overstaffing, and inefficiency. For example, the EPA, Aiwei, and “May 4rd” offices and other departments could not Qing; the relationship between the Housing Authority, the Urban Construction Bureau, the Housing Construction Office, and the demolition office is also difficult to handle; there are also old cadres and the Aging Committee, the Association for Science and Technology, the Retirement Association and the Science and Technology Association. Scientific, rational, and the abolition of district-level system is expected to fundamentally eliminate the drawbacks.

Again, it is conducive to the improvement of administrative efficiency. The hierarchical division of the administrative system should be reasonable. In any case, the less the better, not only the reduction of institutions and personnel, but also the speeding up of information transmission and the reduction of information errors caused by hierarchical transformation, so as to improve the efficiency of administrative management. It is in line with this principle to revoke the district-level system that is optional.

Once again, it can also reduce administrative staff and save administrative expenses. According to the 1984 data, there are 281 cities with a population of less than 1 million in China. If there are 4 districts with a population of 500,000 to 1 million, the city with 200,000 to 500,000 people has 2 districts and 200,000 or less. There is an average of 1 district, and in 1984 alone there were 450 to 500 districts across the country. If the number of editors and temporary staff in each district is calculated by adding 250 people, there are a total of 11 to 120,000 administrative personnel. Assuming that one-third of them are enriched to the city or street neighborhood committee, the number of employees can be reduced by 70,000 to 80,000. This is a conservative but very impressive figure.

Finally, it is conducive to the promotion of socialist democracy and the principle of people's autonomy. The substantive content of socialist democracy is that the people are the masters of the country. This has been stipulated by the Constitution, but the specific implementation has not been completely resolved. The current political system reform is, in general, a political democratization issue. One of the most important aspects is to adopt a self-administered autonomous approach to reflect the democratic principles more directly. After canceling the district-level system, a considerable part of the functions were transferred to the neighborhood committees of the people's self-governing organizations. The result of this not only directly reflected the principle of people's autonomy, but also exercised the people's autonomy and cultivated the spirit of democracy through the self-management process of the people. It has enhanced the sense of democracy and raised the consciousness of exercising democratic rights and the sense of responsibility of the protagonist.

V. Specific measures and measures

In light of the various parties' situations, especially the opinions of the working comrades of many municipal and district real departments, we put forward the following ideas for the cancellation of the urban institutional setting and personnel arrangement after the district-level establishment.

1. Set up a city work committee in the city government. After the district is revoked, some functions will be handed over to the city, and the municipal government can undertake it by setting up a city working committee. The urban work committee is in line with the current institutional reforms and has become a ministry under the direct leadership of the municipal government. It has unified the departments of the city construction bureau, the environmental protection bureau, the urban planning office, the municipal engineering company, and the real estate bureau to perform urban construction and management functions. leadership. Since the cities of the above-mentioned institutions were originally set up, there is no need to increase the number of establishments or establish new institutions. It should be noted that it is only necessary to set up urban working committees for cities that implement the new system of city management. If there is no city management system or no suburban county, since the municipal government works only for the city itself, it is not necessary to set up such a mechanism.

2. Strengthen the neighborhood committee organization. After the service function is decentralized, the existing neighborhood committees are not suitable and need to be strengthened. The sub-district office is currently composed of a number of regional government staff and some non-state staff who rely on career and corporate expenses. The neighborhood committee is purely a non-government organization. The reinforcements we refer to mainly refer to the sub-district offices. Generally, each district has 4 to 5 sub-district offices. The average number of sub-districts in the city is only tens of. It can be directly sent to the leadership of the urban working committee, and the management scope is also Not wide. The street office can be expanded by one-third to twice the current size to ensure the performance of the district decentralization function. The neighborhood committee embodies the characteristics of China's socialist system and plays an important role in the implementation of state management. After the district-level system is abolished, the neighborhood committee will be more important. It is necessary to strengthen the research and exploration of the status and role of the neighborhood committee, reform and enrichment. Improve this popular organization of the people and fully reflect the characteristics of our socialist system.

3. Handle the location of the staff of the district-level political organization. With the revocation of the district-level system, the placement of personnel will be a major problem. According to the calculation and analysis, the following arrangements can be made: one-third of the departments are enriched to the relevant departments and sub-district offices of the city to strengthen their strength; one-third are to the management of enterprises and economic entities, especially the tertiary industry, or Directly to the first line of production: the remaining one-third, some old comrades of the age to go through the retirement procedures in accordance with state regulations and party policies, part of the party school, dry school learning and training, and some temporary borrowing All return to the original work unit. Of course, in the process of personnel resettlement, we must do painstaking and meticulous work to reduce the resistance and ensure the smooth progress of the reform.

Finally, two points can be explained. In combination with the urban pilot reform and the promulgation and implementation of the national civil service system, the medium-sized cities with better conditions will be selected for trial first. After successful, we will gradually promote them. We are only investigating cities with a population of less than 1 million. Whether a large city with a population of more than 1 million can be “made in the same way” requires further investigation and research.