民族村寨旅游开发中的农村社会组织发展研究——以西江千户苗寨“老人会”为例

Rural Social Organizations in Developing Ethnic Village Tourism: A Case Study of Old People's Association in Xijiang Qianhu Miao Village

伴随着乡村政权的不断调整,乡镇政府、农村社会组织和农民之间的利益关系趋于复杂化,导致农村社会群体性事件不断增多,农村社会面临新一轮的治理危机。文章首先从制度环境、公共产品供需和乡村治理模式变化等角度,回顾了农村社会组织参与乡村治理的变化过程,理论上分析了民族地区农村社会组织在乡村治理中的功能和问题。随后以西江千户苗寨"老人会"为例,梳理了村寨旅游开发背景下,农村社会组织与基层政府的关系由合作逐渐走向对抗,最终被解散和重组的过程,发现市场化进程的推进和现代政治权威的发展、利益相关者之间的矛盾和政府对社会组织的"吸纳"是影响农村社会组织发展的根本原因。最后提出基层政府应当引导农村社会组织的发展,确定其参与乡村治理的辅助地位,加强与农村社会组织的互动与合作,促进民族村寨旅游开发扶贫工作的顺利开展和农村社会的团结稳定。

In China, market-oriented economic reforms and acceptance of rural democratic autonomy have continuously helped improve the relationship between the governments and residents.Accordingly, the overall situation with China’s rural areas has remained relatively stable. Ongoing adjustments in the relationships among township governments, rural social organizations, and residents have gradually complicated the interest relationship among those and other actors: the result has been a continuous increase in social mass disturbances in rural areas. Thus, China’s rural society presents a new potential area for governance crisis. In line with current theoretical analysis frameworks, the major factors affecting the development of ethnic social organizations are as follows: advancement of marketization; development of modern political authority; contradictions among the various stakeholders in the process of village tourism development; and community-level governments absorbing rural social organizations. Traditional authority(as represented by old people’s associations)and political authority(as represented by community-level governments) reflect different social stages,and that is an integral element in the development of modern society. Traditional authority still plays an important role in rural governance—especially in the context of social developments in China. Tourism development has largely diminished traditional authority and led to the decline or restructuring of rural social organizations; however, rural social organizations still have an important function in governing ethnic villages. Intensified conflicts among community-level governments, development companies,external merchants, and villagers have directly resulted in the decline of old people’s associations.However, community-level governments have absorbed rural social organizations, which has promoted the restructuring of those associations.Adopting the perspective of political and economic transformation and that of development of public goods supply within the evolution of China’s rural governance model, this study conducted a theoretical analysis of the feasibility and necessity for rural social organizations to participate in rural governance. However, those two perspectives cannot fully explain the development model of social organizations in the process of tourism development in ethnic areas. Using existing analysis frameworks, this study examined the old people’s association of Xijiang Qianhu Miao Village,Guizhou. This investigation surveyed the relationship between rural social organizations and governments with respect to village tourism development. That relationship gradually transformed from one of cooperation to confrontation, and rural social organizations were eventually dismissed or restructured. This study also examined the participation of rural social organizations in the development of village tourism from the perspectives of marketization, modern political authority, stakeholders, and government absorption. It was found that the major factors damaging the relationship between rural social organizations and community-level governments were imbalance between traditional and political authorities, contradictions among stakeholders, and government absorption of social organizations. In the context of current efforts to alleviate poverty through tourism, this study provides a powerful reference for rural governance in tourism development in ethnic villages.