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author: yin huihuang

postdoctoral fellow, school of social sciences, wuhan university

1

rural perspective

the title of "a country's perspective" is easily reminiscent of scott's "a country's perspective". "national perspective" criticizes the extreme and simplistic logic of national projects, which is what "rural perspective" opposes. the difference is,the background of "rural perspective" is china's transformation as a major country and rural revitalization, allocating various resources to improve farmers' lives.this reflects the superiority of socialist china. the problem is that good things can go wrong. the state's investment of large amounts of resources may create more troubles in farmers' lives and even cause tension between cadres and the masses.starting from the countryside, how to return to the main line of serving agriculture, rural areas and farmers is the direction of "rural perspective" in rural construction, which is a prerequisite for the state's input of resources.

"rural perspective" also reflects the author's deepening of thinking on the relationship between the state and agriculture, rural areas and farmers.in 2017, "the last mile village" was published, which can still be regarded as a "national perspective." the state invested heavily to complete the main project, but encountered various organizational difficulties in the last section connecting farmers. while many people are singing about the continuous improvement of national capabilities, the "last mile" is still a ghost that is difficult for the country to grasp and conquer. the 2019 "foundation of a great country" can be regarded as the prelude to "a rural perspective". the reorganization of the countryside is not only to absorb the surplus that the country cannot control, but also the basis for the operation of the country. from a top-down perspective, rural areas are the last mile of transmission of national power. looking from the bottom up, the countryside is the first mile for farmers to contact, understand and identify with the country.in this sense, "rural perspective" can also be called "the first mile country".

2

grassroots governance research

it is to conduct research on national governance at the grassroots level.

grassroots governance research is also not a remaining option for national governance research. grassroots governance is both the research object and the research field. grassroots governance research is the study of china’s national governance at the grassroots level.

there are three key words for the grassroots level. the first one is farmers.farmer is not an abstract word, it needs to be analyzed concretely. the first is still the socio-cultural characteristics of the region. the book lists the qinling mountains of shaanxi and southeastern yunnan as examples to illustrate the different behavioral logics. then there are the regional economic differences, from coastal areas to hinterland china. the difference is not only market opportunities and economic resources, but also practical and rational thinking tempered by repeated trade-offs and comparisons between risks and profits. the soil and water support each person, and family patterns and government behavior logic vary greatly in different regions. only by going deep into the scenario can we holographically understand the relationship between various elements. the governance process is to specifically decompose and transform the country's overall policies and national resources, and connect them with the specific needs of farmers. a positive cycle is formed between resource allocation and national identity. identifying specific farmers is a prerequisite.

the second is the market.a national agricultural product market, labor market, and marriage market have been formed. today, even in the most remote mountain villages, young people can receive compulsory education, grow into a qualified market labor force, and go to the southeastern coast to work and find partners. the power of the market is huge, especially in consumption orientation. in the past ten years, the degree of urbanization in counties has increased rapidly. the small counties in the central and western regions are no longer just the paradise of mixue bingcheng. large supermarkets, heytea, script sales, etc. have become standard features. within families, there are also obvious differences in the consumption habits of the two generations. it can be said that the market has not only guided the above-mentioned differences between east and west china, but also flattened the differences between regions.

the third key word is country.state power has entered every corner of the countryside. along with the downward movement of national resources, a complete set of national goals, plans, supervision, and assessment technologies have entered the countryside. the closed, self-sufficient rural society that "works at sunrise and rests at sunset, what does imperial power mean to me" no longer exists. generally speaking, the entry of state power into rural areas reflects the advantages of the socialist system - its emphasis on fairness and its ability to concentrate its efforts on major tasks. however, there are still many problems in practice: some farmers become lazier and poorer as they get more help, standards for improving the living environment in some areas are ridiculous, and assessment standards are as strict and complex as a maze, etc.

the first keyword emphasizes regional differences, while the second and third keywords illustrate the common trend of grassroots development in china. the grassroots level is a complete ecology that can holographically display the complex interactions between people, markets and countries. the grassroots level is also a window to understand the changing china. during the interview, the village cadres felt as if they were in another world when talking about the working methods during the tax period. the village level is an autonomous unit, the township level is a semi-bureaucratic system with limited resources, and the county level is a relatively complete bureaucratic system. the richness of counties, townships and villages can show all aspects of national governance. what is lacking is not the field, but researchers who think seriously.

3

nationalization of grassroots governance: from technology to system

for a civilized country as large as ours, grassroots governance is an art of balancing national power and local autonomy.when local enthusiasm is too low and the burden of national governance is too heavy, there will be more discussions about feudalism. when local enthusiasm is too high and national power is difficult to penetrate, there will be more discussions about the county system. fei xiaotong's dual-track politics does not mean that the state and local areas are isolated, but that the state and local areas are connected through the life cycle of intellectuals traveling to and from temples and fields.

through land reform, new china achieved grassroots governance. compared with the traditional period, new china has established complete grassroots organizations and its national capabilities have been greatly improved. however, leaders have always made it clear that they must maintain the initiative of both the central and local governments, and implement a collective system in rural areas to leave redundant space for adjustment between the state and society.

during the period of agricultural taxes and fees, the state needs the grassroots to complete the task of collecting taxes and fees. the proportion of labor force migrating is not high, and rural areas still retain an intact structure. therefore, grassroots cadres often need to use both hard and soft tactics to complete their tasks. the state gives formal power to township cadres, but they have to use various informal methods to exercise this power.

after the abolition of agricultural taxes and fees, the state's efforts to support rural areas have increased year by year. the wages of grassroots cadres do not come from taxes and fees collected from farmers, but are provided by the state's finances. the state's influence on grassroots governance is divided into two stages. the first is through project resources going to the countryside. a common problem encountered at this time is that the project is out of touch with farmers' needs, or the village cadres are captured by superior project resources and become a new profit-seeking middle layer. the second is to use technical supervision to go to the countryside. in order to ensure the effective use of resources, the state has established complicated process supervision in an attempt to prevent grassroots corruption. the transfer of resources to the countryside and supervision to the countryside are important themes in the study of governance in central china, forming the precursor to the nationalization of grassroots governance today.

the difference is,in the past ten years, the state's influence on grassroots governance has become not just a matter of project resources or supervision technology, but a complete set of new, holographic systems.

first, the amount of resources invested in rural areas is larger, and it is no longer lines and specific projects, but may fall into a negative cycle between strong overall planning and high local debts.. while rural infrastructure and other aspects have been greatly improved, it has also brought about many problems. resource investment has also bid farewell to the previous project system logic, and the overall management of project funds within the county has been greatly strengthened. the survey found that a negative cycle may form between project coordination efforts and local debt. for example, the state invests a large amount of industrial poverty alleviation funds and requires a fixed income of 5% to avoid local waste. however, the possibility of village-level industrial operation failure is very high, and the local government concentrates all of it and invests it in a certain large local enterprise. later, large enterprises failed, so the county level pooled funds for various projects throughout the county to maintain local operations, secure key projects, and so on. local cadres told us that "overtaking on a curve, changing lanes to overtake", local leaders may use concentrated funds to create typical work experience to highlight political achievements, which may lead to greater local debt.

second, from process supervision to full-process management, the work pressure of grassroots cadres is infinitely superimposed.cadres reported that in the past, the organization department was in charge of recruiting people, and the discipline inspection commission was in charge of expelling people. now, the organization department and the discipline inspection commission are in charge of everything from entry to exit. our investigation revealed that in some places the organization department is responsible for regional greening, while in other places the discipline inspection commission is responsible for health inspections. from a thousand threads at the top and a needle at the bottom, to a thousand knives at the top and a head at the bottom. under the pressure of various central tasks and accountability, grassroots cadres must prove through various processes and forms that they are not lazy cadres. for many grassroots cadres, accountability is no longer an external constraint, and shirking responsibility has been internalized into a logic of action. accountability is the sword of damocles that hangs over the heads of grassroots cadres. the delegation of any task is the delegation of responsibility to them. the first thing to consider is whether to break it down, classify it, and concretely integrate it with local development, but to prove that you have implemented this work to avoid being held accountable by your superiors. “work of proof” and “work of embodiment” replace the work itself.

the era of strong national power forms the basis for the modernization of grassroots governance today. how to respect and give full play to the subjectivity of farmers has become a difficult problem before us.

4

a subjectless society? no subject governance!

"cadres do it, but the masses watch it" is a helpless reality.

during a survey in a certain county, superiors randomly inspected a certain village as a living environment observation point, and the township urgently mobilized village cadres and hired cleaners to go to the village for sanitation. the old farmers in this village are still working in the fields, and everything has nothing to do with them. superiors want to inspect sanitation and require firewood to be piled in a certain pattern in the yard. if farmers are unwilling, village cadres have to do it themselves. farmers feel that the grassroots cadres are tormenting them, and the grassroots cadres feel that there is pressure from above and that the grassroots are not cooperating, and both sides are unhappy.

formalism is not only reflected in material work, but also in various details of reality. when the abstract requirements for improving the living environment cannot be combined with the needs of the local people at that time, farmers certainly have no subjectivity. in other words,it’s not that the grassroots society lacks subjectivity and enthusiasm, but that the current practices in some areas objectify farmers who are inherently subjects.. this type of governance without an agent naturally has extremely high costs and extremely low returns, or even negative returns.

some people believe that most of the rural areas in central and western china have been hollowed out today. there are no young and middle-aged elites in the countryside, only old and weak groups, and it is difficult for them to become an organized force. on the other hand, because of this, how to build age-friendly villages is the main issue at the moment. a current wrong thinking is that in order to solve the problem of the elderly, huge resources are invested in purchasing third-party services and so on. in rural china, the basis and premise for solving the elderly care problem is not to simply problematize the elderly. farmers have their own value system, and current rural construction should give them space for self-realization. it is a good life for farmers to work moderately, worry about food and vegetables, and have their children grow up healthily. furthermore, the staged characteristics of the elderly group should be specifically analyzed, such as whether they are able to support themselves, etc.

the problem is not that there are no people left in the countryside, but rather arrogant policies and research.

targeting the needs of village groups, discovering needs through the process of village democracy, and then connecting them with national input resources, we can realize environmental optimization and optimize the supply of public goods at a low cost. during a survey in a certain village, the village cadre took us carefully around the construction projects in the village, and the contrast was very obvious. the projects requested by superiors were expensive and impractical, but the projects arranged by the village spontaneously were very low-cost and very beautiful. for example, on both sides of the river, the superior departments insisted on using the great wall shape as guardrails and volcanic stone as flower beds. the cost was very high, and it blocked the river scenery and was difficult to maintain. the small gardens and bridges built by village cadres and villagers in various corners are very beautiful, practical and low-cost, and the nearby dad is willing to take the initiative to maintain and clean them. this cadre said: "it would definitely cost a lot to decorate my own home and i would be uncomfortable if others decorated it." only the farmers and cadres in the village know the details of the village's environment best, and they are always responsible for the evaluation among acquaintances and society, and consider the live long-term, rather than reporting material.

the problem of governance without a main body is not only suspension, but also interference and consumption at the grassroots level.research in a county in central china found that villages are generally in debt. the reason is the lack of funds for local rural construction. therefore, grassroots cadres wrote ious to contractors in their own names and built observation points. in the end, cadres and the government became the biggest culprits. some village cadres he was punished for breach of trust and had to borrow money from the government even for medical treatment. the projects promoted by the government have an inducement effect. in unreasonable projects, after farmers and grassroots cadres are involved, it is likely that all economic resources and social credit will be overdrawn.

5

a political view of simple governance

it is dangerous to be separated from the masses of the people. this is the most fundamental reason for opposing formalism and bureaucracy.

mao zedong said that we should care about the lives of the masses and pay attention to work methods. they only talked about expanding the red army or mobilizing transportation teams, and ignored the lives of the masses. in the end, the meeting could not be held, and there was no achievement in expanding the red army and mobilizing transportation teams. caring for the masses cannot be an abstract task, but must have specific working methods. "our task is to cross the river, but we cannot cross without a bridge or a boat. without solving the problem of bridges or boats, crossing the river is just an empty talk."

when it comes to grassroots governance, what is mentioned above isthe core of simple governance does not lie in the low density of state investment resources and low institutional complexity, but in always being guided by the needs of the people and respecting the people's dominant position.as a governance model, simple governance is based on the political outlook of serving the people. from this dimension,the key to simple governance is adapting measures to local conditions and seeking truth from facts, and not just unique to the traditional central and western agricultural regions. the eastern region has complex people and intensive interests, and spontaneously solves local problems through various institutional tools such as grid governance, which is also one of the models of simple governance. of course, when grid governance is promoted as an experience, and various technologies are constantly superimposed, and huge investment is unnecessary, it is the opposite of simple governance.

the "constitution" is written to serve the people, and the "rural revitalization promotion law" is written to uphold the dominant position of farmers. in other words, when leading cadres abandon simple governance and use various methods to create experience and create highlights, this is not only a problem of the view of political performance, but a problem of the fundamental view of politics. if the state concentrates a large amount of resources to feed back to rural areas, good things will go wrong in some places. this is not only a waste of resources, but also destroys the political trust of the lower social groups in the party and the country.

for researchers, paying attention to people should be a kind of research consciousness. fei xiaotong said that research cannot see society but not people. only by going outside the structure and experiencing the ups and downs of social members can we achieve the convergence of research. due to various changes in governance, policies, etc., research is easily limited to various microscopic phenomena.in the era of modernization of grassroots governance, researchers are especially required to have holistic thinking. holistic thinking does not start from dogma and slogans, but is based on presumption. only in this way can governance research bridge the micro and macro perspectives and possess strategic vision and theoretical concern.