从“养人”到“养事”——咸安区高桥镇站所改革调查

From "Supporting Personnel" to "Funding Public Utilities":A Survey of the Departmental Reform in Gaoqiao Town of Xian'an District, Hubei Province

本文以湖北咸安区高桥镇为例,对咸安区乡镇站所改革的全过程进行重新扫描,并探讨了这一体制变迁的重大意义。在这项改革中,咸安区撤销了乡镇政府所有的直管站所,将它们整体转制为民营性经济实体,其原有的行政管理职能收归乡镇政府履行,原来由它们生产的乡村公共品由基层政府通过"公开招标",实行"合同管理"和市场化运作,从而实现了从"养人"到"养事"的转变,探索了一条后税费改革时期农村基层财政困难条件下发展农村社会事业、服务"三农"的新路径。这项改革表面上看来似乎只是乡镇站所的撤销、重组和改制而已,然而实质上却是农村基层公共服务体制的根本变革,甚至是农村基层政府的一种再造。

Taking the example of the departmental reform exercised in Gaoqiao Town of Xian'an Urban District, Hubei Province, this paper probes into the significance of the institutional transformation. In the reform, all departments originally under the jurisdiction of the township government are repealed and restructured into non-state-owned economic entities; while their former administrative functions are performed by the government, the public goods originally provided by them are now offered by the market through 'public tender'and 'contracted management' under the guidance of the grassroots government. The transformation from 'supporting personnel' to 'funding public utilities' is thereby fulfilled, and a new approach is explored to development of the social welfare in rural areas and service of 'the country, the agriculture, and the farmer', at a time when grassroots governments in rural areas are faced with financial difficulties toward the end of the national tax-and-fee reform. The reform itself looks like nothing but the termination, reconstitution and restructuring of the Township departments; however, it is virtually a fundamental reform in the grassroots public service, and even a recast of the grassroots government.