The first-endowed characteristics and later-endowed resources of the rich groups make it easier for them to become the main body of village governance.
Judging from the actual cases, "enriching the people and governing the villages", which originated in the southeast coastal provinces earlier, has become a major trend in rural political practice in China. Under the two-way interaction between local governments and the rich, this trend will continue to strengthen. From the historical and practical point of view, the phenomenon of "rich people governing villages" has a profound social foundation.
From a historical perspective, "rich people govern villages" continues the idea of absorbing elites in national governance. No matter how the squire manages the village in the traditional society or how the grass-roots regime absorbs the backbone of the labor force during the people's commune period, what remains unchanged is the national governance strategy and elite cooperation behind the change of the main body of village governance. After the village * * * relaxed life, cultural elites and social elites gradually faded out of the political arena, the status of economic elites became more and more prominent, and the rich groups stepped onto the "front desk".
The first premise of "the rich govern the village" is the emergence of the rich group. The openness and competitiveness of the market economy make some farmers who have strong ability and seize opportunities become the first rich groups. It can be said that the development of economy and society provides a human reserve for "the rich govern the village", while the state's recognition and support for individuals' pursuit of wealth and the relaxation of the requirements for membership of village committees in the practice of villagers' autonomy have opened the way for the rich groups to enter village politics in the system. In terms of high probability, villagers who can get rich generally have strong abilities and rich resources. In the practice of villagers' autonomy, the probability of their election is obviously higher than that of ordinary villagers.
The pre-endowed characteristics and post-endowed resources of the rich groups are more likely to become the main body of village governance. The governance resources that a qualified village Committee leader should have can be divided into three categories: first, institutional resources, including institutional identity and institutional entrusted resource allocation power; Secondly, as the identity resources of village members, their local knowledge and friendship with village members are themselves "familiar" resources; Third, personal resources, including economic resources, prestige resources and personal ability. For example, the fundamental reason why many cadres who work in the countryside are difficult to achieve practical results is the lack of identity resources of village officials, and personal resources vary widely. The advantages of the rich group lie in their familiarity with the village, their kinship network with the villagers, their subsequent personal resources and dominant power, and their membership in the village itself. The personal ability and economic resources of the rich make it easier for them to gain the recognition of the township government and ordinary villagers when running for the village Committee.
Four Motives for the Rich to Participate in Village Governance
From the point of view of the rich themselves, after gaining the status of economic elite, they seek greater development and pursue higher social status, which strengthens their motivation to participate in politics. The motivation of the rich to participate in village governance can be roughly divided into four categories: the first category is developmental, hoping to transform the identity of village cadres into social capital, obtain more policy information resources, and build a deeper network of contacts with this political identity; The second is profit-seeking, hoping to use the favorable position of village cadres to obtain various favorable resources when national resources are injected into rural areas; The third category is psychological satisfaction, hoping to enhance personal social prestige and obtain psychological satisfaction through the identity of village cadres; The fourth category is rural sentimental type. Rich people who really have rural feelings hope to feed back the countryside and use the platform of village committees to seek development and well-being for the villagers. It can be said that no matter what kind of motivation, the motivation of the rich group (especially the newly rich class operating in rural areas) to participate in politics is constantly increasing.
The transformation of the goal of grass-roots governance has prompted the rich to embark on the stage of rural governance. After the relationship between the state and farmers has changed from "learning" to "serving", the goal of grassroots governance has also changed from focusing on maintaining stability to seeking development. Grass-roots political power has limited resources and weak governance ability, which often leads to the phenomenon of "lack of money". "Rich people govern villages" can make up for the lack of governance by using their own personal resources. The participation of the rich in politics not only conforms to the goal of grassroots governance, but also objectively reduces the cost of governance. In a word, the transformation of the goal of grass-roots governance and the shortage of its own resources make the township government strategically choose the rich group as village cadres, and the strategy of realizing various administrative and governance goals pushes the rich group into the stage of village governance.
"The rich govern the village" is prone to the hidden dangers of "superficial effectiveness" and privatization of village governance, which leads to capitalization of power and involution of governance.
First of all, "the rich govern the village" easily leads to the atrophy of grassroots democracy. As village cadres, the most direct effect of the rich group is that public political resources are concentrated in economic elites, which gives them the opportunity to construct new village political ethics. In the case of weak village collective assets and difficult project financing, "village cadres pay for things" has become politically correct. When the moral threshold of "benefiting the public by private interests" and the rising economic threshold become local knowledge to participate in village administration, the standard of election will be greatly improved, and ordinary villagers will be blocked from village administration. This political exclusion of ordinary villagers will squeeze the public governance space of villages, leading to the lack of representativeness of grassroots governance and the atrophy of grassroots democracy.
Secondly, "the rich govern the village" is prone to "superficial utility" and privatization of village governance. The main criterion for evaluating the effectiveness of village governance is effective governance, which includes bottom line governance and high-level development. The bottom line standard of effective governance is that villages can form their own order and provide necessary public goods; The higher priority of effective governance is to realize the development of villages. In the supply of public goods, the personal donations and competing products of the rich are beneficial to local development, but they do not have the overall enthusiasm. Therefore, in this sense, the governance of most villages by rich groups is only "superficially effective", and the more serious hidden danger is the privatization of village governance. For example, "the rich govern the village" weakens the publicity of the village to a certain extent and enhances the private nature of governance.
Finally, "the rich govern the village" easily leads to capitalization of power and involution of governance. Under the protection of political elite status, the rich group has completed the transformation from economic elite to compound public power role. Objectively speaking, the township government has a high degree of dependence on rich village cadres and insufficient supervision motivation. In the village political environment where ordinary villagers are excluded from participation, wealthy village cadres with strong ability are prone to power alienation when faced with endless resources. For example, wealthy village cadres who live outward cannot meet the needs of villagers accurately when they undertake national resources, and may even encounter problems such as interception and monopoly of national resources, resulting in the involution dilemma of grassroots governance. In addition, the extroversion of rich village cadres' life and the alienation of power can easily lead to the phenomenon of "floating village governance", which can not provide scientific and effective public governance and public services for villagers.
To guide and standardize "rich people governing villages", we need to strengthen the training of rich village cadres on the basis of using the vision and personal ability of the rich.
At present, we should respect the established reality of "the rich govern the village", make use of this trend and guide the rich groups to better serve the village administration. On the basis of using the insight and personal ability of wealthy groups, strengthen the training and guidance of wealthy village cadres; While improving political literacy and ruling ability, we should arrange training and study reasonably and give full play to the advantages of wealthy village cadres.
With the loosening of traditional cultural network, rich village cadres can't be bound by local moral standards like local elites in the past. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen supervision, tighten the cage of the system and control the power of "willfulness". It is necessary to adopt institutional norms to prevent interception and abuse of national resources and prevent the capitalization and black deterioration of power. It is necessary to establish and improve the supervision system of village affairs at the grassroots level, and curb village cadres' abuse of power for personal gain and abuse of power from the source. It is necessary to compact the main responsibility of the township party Committee to supervise the village party branch and put an end to the phenomenon of shielding and connivance. It is necessary to truly transform the project resources injected by the state into the public resources of the village, rebuild the publicity of the village and promote the development of the village.
The most important thing is to develop grass-roots democracy, so as to avoid the problems caused by "rich people governing villages" and make rural politics develop healthily. The development of grass-roots democracy has a great restriction on the power of wealthy village cadres, which can encourage wealthy groups to provide better public services for villages. Therefore, we can explore various forms of grassroots democratic practice, expand villagers' political participation, unblock interest feedback channels, guarantee the right to speak of ordinary villagers, truly find back the masses and serve them. Only in this way can "the rich govern the village" develop its beauty and avoid its danger.
The writer is a professor at School of Sociology, Beijing Normal University.
Rural Discovery Transferred from: People's Forum Network