基层民主治理单元的下沉——从村民自治到小社区自治

The Sinking of Grassroots Democratic Governance Units——From Villagers Autonomy to Small Community Autonomy

在上世纪90年代末的中国政治改革减缓之后,中国的政治改革阵地向基层转移,在广大农村发展起了村民自治的民主形式,但在新农村建设的背景下中国的村民自治走向何方?村民自治为什么目前陷入低迷状态?这一系列的问题还有待解答。从村民自治的发展情况来看,一种观点认为其在衰落的同时走向农村社区自治;另一种观点认为村民自治并没有衰落,只是缺乏有效实现方式而已。但从最新的经验出发我们会发现,村民自治一直备受诟病而且举步不前的原因在于其治理的组织单元过大,而治理单元的细化和下沉,小社区自治是其进一步发展的方向之一,其优势在于对现有村民自治条件下无法解决的公共服务、集体发展、社会秩序、社会关联和民主权利等方面的难题的化解提供了新的思路,其因为治理单元小、集体行动易于达成、利益关联密切和激励及时有效等特点,在农民组织化、农民公共利益和农民公共生活的创建等方面都大有作为。

Since China＇ s political reform slowed down in the late 1990s, China＇s political reform position has shifted to the grassroots and the democratic form of villagers autonomy has developed into the vast rural areas. However, under the background of new rural construction, where does the villagers autonomy move on？ Why does villagers autonomy currently slump？ And such a series of questions remain to be answered. As to the development of the villagers autonomy, one view holds that it moves towards rural community autonomy while it＇s declining. Another view is that the villagers autonomy doesn＇ t decline, but lacks effective ways to achieve it. From the latest experience we can find that, the villagers autonomy has been much criticized and stalled because of its oversize-scaled governance unit. And to deal with the refinement and sinking of governance unit, small community autonomy is one of the directions for the further development of villagers autonomy. The advantage of small community autonomy is that it provides a new way of solving the difficult problems of public service, public development, social order, social connection and democratic rights which cannot be solved under current conditions of villagers autonomy. Because of the characteristics of small governance unit, such as easy to achieve collective action, closely related interests and effective incentives, small community autonomy can make great achievements in the aspects of villagers＇ organization, villagers＇ public interests and the establishment of villagers＇ public life.