中部地区特大城市撤县(市)设区的治理效应研究--以武汉市蔡甸区为例

The Effects of Turning Counties(Cities)into Districts(TCD)for Megacities of Central China:the Case of Caidian,Wuhan

行政区划调整一直被作为优化地方治理的重要手段,其中最典型的是撤县(市)设区。已有撤县(市)设区研究多集中在东南沿海地区,对于中部地区关注较少。中部地区尤其是特大城市的撤县设区相较于东南沿海地区是否具有很大差异?其治理效应如何?成为需要深入研究的问题。为此,以武汉市蔡甸区(原汉阳县)为例,通过比较分析,结合地方政府企业主义理论,围绕蔡甸区的撤县设区及其治理成效展开研究。实证表明,在发展阶段和地理区位的约束下,蔡甸区的发展动力机制与沿海地区大城市周边县市有显著不同;经过撤县设区,其行政资源进一步受限,出现被动边缘化,难以实现快速发展,以致加剧了武汉市域发展的不均衡性。针对这些问题,提出了落实重大战略开发项目,调动市级行政资源向边缘地区倾斜,提升区级治理能力等方面政策建议。

The adjustment of adrministrative divisions is often taken as one of the most important means of optimizing local govermance by the Chinese states,the most typical of which is turning counties(cities)into districts(TCD).Existing studies on this topic often target on the developed coastal regians,less attention has been paid to the central China.I s TCD of the central region,especially that af the mega cities,different from the coastal regions?Is the effect of TCD the same across different regions?Such questions thus need to be answered.For this reason,this research takes Caidian District(formerly Hanyang County)of Wuhan City as an example to examine the process and effects of TCD for Caidian District,from the perspective of comparative analysis,along with the theory of local state entrepreneurialism.Our empirical studies show that under the constraints of both development stage and geographic location,Caidian District has a development mechanim that is sigrnificantly different from that of the counties or cities of the coastal regions.After the county turned into districts,its administrative resources have been firther constrained,making it more difficult to achieve a take-off.Moreover,TCD akso exacerbates the uneven development of Wuhan as a whole.In response to these problems,we call for mobilizing municipal adiministrative resources to marginal areas through the implementation of major strategic development projects,impraving district-level govemance capabilities,and other related policies.