基层行政的秩序困境及其超越

Order Dilemma of Primary-level Public Administration and Its Solutions

基层行政过程和结果同上级决策和计划的期望常常存在落差,对这一问题的解释可归结为结构功能主义和社会建构主义两条基本进路,在社会理论的抽象意义上,这些解释都在分析基层行政的情境秩序与国家治理所追求的宏观秩序之间的关系。处在“压力—自主—应付”情境中,一线行政人员更注重情境秩序的维系,这有利于安全顺利地完成其手头工作,对他们而言宏观秩序的要求不是时刻都具有优先性,情境秩序与宏观秩序的落差构成了基层行政的秩序困境。而国家和组织会尝试对一线行政人员实施控制以便将宏观秩序要求输入基层行政的情境之中,但面临着日常生活的功能性悖反与个体行动的目的性局限,控制路径也可能失效。超越基层行政的秩序困境,应该以树立兼容基层行政功能差异的治理理念、构建面向基层行政授权赋能的组织体系、优化实现基层行政责任均衡的问责机制为路径。

There are always differences between decisions of superior authority and outcomes of primarylevel public administration. The explanation of this problem can be attributed to two basic approaches: structural functionalism and social constructivism. In the abstract sense of social theory, these explanations analyze the relationship between the situational order of primary-level public administration and the macro order pursued by state governance. Street-level bureaucrats pay more attention to maintaining context order for completing works at hand in the context of “pressure-autonomy-coping”. They do not give priority to macro order so that the gap between context order and macro order becomes order dilemma of primary-level public administration. States and organizations attempt to exert control over street bureaucrats to transfer macro order requirements into the primary-level public administration. However, functional contradictions of daily life and the limited purpose of individual actions will inevitably disable the controlling path. To tackle order dilemma in primary-level public administration, governance concept which integrates different functions of street-level public administration should be set up;an organization system which empowers and energizes street-level bureaucracy is needed;accountability mechanism which can achieve balance responsibility in administrative regime must be optimized.