Investigation Report on "Three-Three-Three" Villager Autonomy in Village Autonomy

Author: Li Dang Empowerment Jiangsu Yangzhou University Research published online

Villager autonomy is an effective form of centralized and unified management and self-management of the country. Its main body is the villagers. Its core is democratic election, democratic decision-making, democratic management, and democratic supervision. Its fundamental purpose is to realize the self-management, self-service and self-government of the villagers. education. Therefore, it fully embodies the principle that the people are the masters of the country. As a democratic practice carried out by the state system, after more than ten years of development, it has been in-depth in the country, exploring an effective way for the governance of rural communities in China, and is an inevitable trend in the development of rural grassroots organizations in China in the future!

This summer, our practice team of “seeking truth and being pragmatic and promoting development” went to the grassroots level and conducted an investigation on the development status of villager autonomy, witnessing the irrational phenomenon in the process of autonomy. From the results of the survey, although the villagers' self-government has achieved remarkable results in some places, the overall situation of regional development is unbalanced. The villagers' autonomy in the economically underdeveloped areas is basically stagnant, and its situation is worrying! See the table below:

Phenomenon survey

Representing the number of surveys

Whether the status of villager autonomy is satisfactory

Not satisfied: 70%

Village affairs government affairs financial disclosure status

Never or rarely disclosed: 67%

Current village committee's organizational system and job satisfaction

Not satisfied: 60 %

Whether the election process can be democratically regulated, smooth channels, and mobilize the people

Can always be like this: 15 %

Village committee's implementation of collective economy, infrastructure and public security

Not satisfied: 80%

Implementation of the higher level policy and completion of tasks

More smoothly: 52%

Therefore, regarding the current situation of villager autonomy development, we believe that the following three major phenomena are mainly reflected:

I. The phenomenon of “obstruction” means that the country’s line policy and policy are difficult to be effectively implemented, and the policy is seriously out of line. The people in the survey generally reflect that there is a problem of “good-sentence being recited”. The villagers expressed strong dissatisfaction with the incompetence of the village committee.

Second, the phenomenon of “empty shells” means that the village collective economy is developing slowly, or the collective economy has been hollowed out, resulting in uncontrolled public affairs and public utilities in the village. As reflected in the above table, in the aspects of farmland water network transformation, education and health, and environmental protection and public security, which are related to rural development, they cannot fully play their roles. Therefore, villager autonomy lacks economic support.

Third, the phenomenon of “centrifugation” means that the self-governing organizations such as the villagers’ committees have low prestige, lack of cohesiveness, and tension between the cadres The investigation found that the work and organization of the village committee was chaotic. As the villagers reflected, the village committee “followed the follow-up” and served as the “agent” of the government for a long time, which was more focused on the implementation of higher-level tasks. The meaning of autonomy has intensified the contradiction of grassroots and deviated from the spirit of autonomy!

Based on the above understanding, in addition to political, economic and cultural factors, we combined the survey and analysis that there are three main reasons:

First, the overall technical guidance and implementation of the technical programmatic design imbalance. Although the state has issued a series of corresponding guiding laws and regulations, there is still a lack of practical operability in the process of village self-government. The survey found that many villages do not have corresponding autonomy regulations, and management lacks normative long-term measures. Therefore, the arbitrariness in execution is more artificial, and it is easy to formally go through the game.

Second, the government's initiation, guidance, propaganda, supervision, and normative role are insufficient. The investigation found that the government did not understand the villager autonomy and lacked effective measures to strengthen the building of villagers' self-government at the grassroots level. For a long time, too much emphasis has been placed on the means of administration, and it has been mistakenly entered into the strange circle of "death and death. The movement and the shadows bring the passive execution of grassroots cadres, which may be an important reason for the passiveness of villagers' autonomy in quite a few places.

Third, the lack of demonstration effects. The significance of villager autonomy lies in the maintenance of the interests of the villagers and the respect of the rights of the villagers. Due to the lack of understanding of the parties involved, the actual functions of the villagers' autonomy are difficult to play. Many people in the survey believe that autonomy is meaningless and thus affects participation. Therefore, it is necessary to demonstrate the benefits of the villagers through demonstrations and stimulate their participation.

Combining various situations, we believe that to actively and steadily promote the effective development of autonomy, we should proceed from the following three aspects:

I. Improve the legal system

A sound legal system is the basic condition for ensuring the standardization of villagers' autonomy. Since the villagers' autonomy reflects the villagers' autonomy in managing the affairs of the village within the village, it is necessary to emphasize the participation of the villagers in the formulation and implementation of the legal system, so that the village cadres and villagers can be managed according to the provisions of the self-governing regulations. At the same time, the new situation in the process of autonomy should be explained and defined in a timely and clear manner. Under the conditions of fully embodying the spirit of the national legal principles, the management norms should be established according to the actual formulation of the self-governing regulations, and the non-standardization phenomenon in self-government should be avoided. From the provisions of the regulations to the specific activities of the standardization.

Second, the government actively guides the strengthening of regulation

Any autonomous organization is relative. Village self-government requires the administration and guidance of the government. It is necessary to rationally use the authority of the government on the track of democracy and the rule of law to strengthen the government's "initiation, guidance, propaganda, supervision, and regulation" in the process of autonomy. The function of the government to promote the effective operation of village self-government through the government's macro-control.

Third, pay attention to the steps and rhythm of villager autonomy

Like other forms of democratic politics, the development of village self-government is a long-term development process, and its content is very rich, and it is impossible to go hand in hand. Therefore, in order to standardize village self-government, we must pay attention to the steps and rhythm of villager autonomy, focus on timely handling some key issues that people are most concerned about to reflect the most intense, and adopt appropriate methods to carry out self-government activities so that villagers can experience the benefits of autonomy. At this stage, at least the following four aspects should be emphasized:

In the "four democracies" of village self-government, democratic elections and democratic supervision are emphasized to promote democratic decision-making and democratic management. On the one hand, through democratic elections, people who are capable can be truly elected into an autonomous organization to satisfy the desire of the vast number of villagers to develop their economies and achieve a better life. On the other hand, through this election, the village committee cadres can fully respect the public opinion when making decisions, ensure the scientific and democratic decision-making, and realize the supervision of the villagers.

Improve the system of autonomous organizations. The autonomous organization is the organization support and standardization guarantee for the villagers to participate in the village affairs and implement self-government. Therefore, in addition to strengthening the construction of the village committee, we must focus on strengthening the construction of villagers' congresses and village meetings. From the perspective of the adjustment, this is also the weak link in the current autonomy, but it is indeed an important channel for villagers to participate in village affairs. Therefore, it is necessary to follow the basic track of the autonomous organization and strengthen the construction of the "village committee - village representative meeting - village meeting" to realize the transformation from indirect democracy to direct democracy!

Village self-government activities will be carried out around the center of economic construction. The main task of the villagers is to develop the economy. Only by grasping this center can a solid foundation be obtained. Therefore, the village committee should promote the adjustment of the industrial structure of the rural areas while encouraging the higher-level tasks, encourage the joint development of the villagers and the establishment of cooperative organizations, strengthen information guidance, policy support and skills training, and make the production and supply of agricultural products. ——Sale” work, on the other hand, actively through various channels, to reflect the opinions and suggestions of farmers to the government and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of farmers.

Strengthen village group contacts. According to the survey, many villages have been merged on the basis of several villages. Therefore, the scope is large and the population is large. It is difficult for villagers to participate in village-level affairs management frequently, and village self-government is carried out on the scope of the village. of. Therefore, in order to achieve the normal development of self-government at this stage, it is necessary to use the villager group as a small autonomous unit, so that the villagers can gradually create conditions for participating in village-level affairs by participating in group affairs, and truly realize village self-government.

Perhaps the proposal for village self-government is far more than that, but we believe that any suggestions based on practice, or reflection and debate will be conducive to our final resolution of the problem! I hope that our investigation can provide some advice for the practice of village self-government!
Author: Li Dang Empowerment Jiangsu Yangzhou University Research published online