在邀功与避责之间:基层政府履责行为波动探微--基于Q县项目资金运作过程的观察

Between Credit Claiming and Blame Avoidance:Exploring the Fluctuation of Grassroots Government's Responsibility Taking--Observations on the Operation Process of Project Funds in County Q

基层政府履责行为是透视中国之治的重要窗口之一。学界围绕基层政府履责行为从宏观制度因素、中观运行规律、微观策略选择等不同层面进行了研究与探讨,但对导致履责行为变化的原因缺乏清晰的认识。基于“任务-资源”分析框架,通过对Q县基层部门“蜂业翻番”项目资金运作过程展开分析,研究发现基层政府的履责行为存在波动变化特征,受不同情境下任务和资源的匹配程度影响较大。具体而言,基层政府在资源约束情境下会积极地“争资跑项”,在任务超载情境下会采取观望等待、忙而不动、避重就轻等避责策略,在时间增压情境下会想方设法地灵活应对,从而导致其履责意愿在邀功倾向与避责倾向之间波动变化。这说明,基层政府的避责行为通常并非源于一开始即有的主观故意,而是在政策执行过程中阶段性的策略选择。研究揭示了基层政府履责行为波动变化的特征及原因,为构建基层政府权责均衡的责任结构提供了政策建议。

The responsibility taking of grassroots governments is an important window into the governance of China.Academia focus on the responsibility taking of grassroots governments from different aspects including macro-institutional factors,meso-operational laws,and micro-strategy choices,but the reasons for the changes in the responsibility taking behaviour are still not clear enough.Based on the“task-resource”analysis framework,we analyses the operation process of the“doubling of bee industry”project funds in Q county,and find that the responsibility taking of grassroots governments has fluctuating characteristics,which is greatly affected by the matching degree of tasks and resources in different contexts.Specifically,in the case of resource constraints,the grassroots government will actively“run for funds and projects”;in the case of task overload,it will adopt the strategies of blame avoidance,such as passive waiting,being busy but not moving,and avoiding the important things;and in the case of time pressures,they will try to flexibly cope with the situation,which results in the fluctuating changes in their willingness of responsibility taking between the tendency of credit claiming and blame avoidance.This study indicates that the blame avoidance behaviour of grassroots governments is usually not the result of subjective intention at the beginning,but rather the phased strategic choice in the process of policy implementation.The study reveals the characteristics and reasons for the fluctuating changes of the responsibility taking of grassroots governments,and provides policy suggestions for the construction of a balanced responsibility structure for grassroots governments.