宋明基层乡约治理的特点与启示

The Characteristics and Lesson of Song Ming Village Conventions

宋明乡约是传统中国一种典型的基层治理模式。乡约依倡办者身份不同分为官办乡约与民办乡约,前者更重官府强制性并取得了较为显著的治理成效,后者更重百姓自主性却往往导致约束力不足。乡约注重道德教化,通过定期聚会表彰善行、纠正恶行来提高约众的道德修养,聚会议事注重道德理性原则。乡约在治乡实践中逐渐与保甲、社学、社仓等治理方式结合,统合处理赋税收缴、治安维护、百姓教育、灾困救济等事务。宋明乡约注重百姓在基层治理中的自主性、注重基层协商中的道德理性、注重道德感化方法与强制性法规的互补以及注重统合处理基层各类事务等特点对于当代中国的基层协商治理具有一定启发。

Song Ming village conventions reveal typical grassroots governance of ancient China. According to the identity of the initiators, village conventions are divided into government-run conventions and privately-run conventions.The former is more mandatory and has achieved more significant governance results, the latter emphasizes the autonomy of the people but often leads to insufficient restraint. Village conventions pay attention to moral education. They hold regular meetings to commend good deeds and correct evil deeds in order to improve the public*s moral cultivation, and hold discussions to focus on the principle of moral reason. In the practice of rural governance, village conventions have been gradually combined with governance methods such as Baojia, Community school, and Community granary, and integrated affairs such as tax collection, public security maintenance, people's education, and disaster relief. Village conventions pay attention to people's autonomy in grass-roots governance ,the moral rationality in grass-roots consultations, the complementarity of moral persuasion methods and mandatory regulations, and the integration of various kinds of affairs at the grassroots level. These characteristics have certain implications for the grass-roots deliberative governance in contemporary China.