Decentralising to Villages in Indonesia: Money (and Other) Mistakes

Nearly 15 years after embarking on its large‐scale decentralisation programme, Indonesia has decided to extend its efforts to the village level. Decentralising to villages is intended to improve service delivery performance at the lowest administrative tier and reduce social inequality and poverty. A number of potential difficulties with the design of Indonesia's nascent village decentralisation initiative have already become apparent. Methods used to allocate funds to villages are particularly problematic. Oddly, fund distribution procedures insist to a large extent on equal per village allocations, despite the significant heterogeneity of villages. And they ignore other sources of revenue to which villages have access. In the event, village revenues will be very inequitably distributed: villages with high levels of poverty will receive less money than they need and villages with access to significant funding from oil and gas revenues will receive more than required. Also, village service responsibilities are unclearly defined, village financial management systems are inadequately prepared to handle large increases in funding, and mechanisms to monitor and control village spending are underdeveloped. These difficulties will severely constrain the achievement of official objectives and create further challenges for reformers in their attempts to combat corruption at the subnational level. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Does Labor Migration Improve Access to Public Goods in Source Communities? Evidence from Rural China

What is the effect of out-migration on drinking water provision in rural China? Despite concerns about the ability of migrants to contribute to collective action for public goods provision, this study demonstrates that villages with higher rates of labor migration are more likely to have public drinking water than those with little migration. Temporary labor migration reduces isolation and increases connections outside the village. External funding sources including county governments favor villages where they have contacts as well as villages that need more support because most working-age adults are working outside the village. As a result, villages with high rates of out-migration are more likely have public access to drinking water. The findings are based on data from a survey of more than 50 natural villages in two townships of Southwest China.     

本村人、本地人与外来人——经济发达村庄的封闭与开放

本通过对四个经济发达村庄村民与外来人口之间关系的研究解释村庄的封闭与开放。在这项研究中我们发现,农村改革以后,随着农村工业化和城市化的发展,村庄并不是越来越走向开放,相反,经济发达的村庄越来越形成一个经济共同体,其封闭性在提高;与此同时,本村村民保持了与周围村民的交往和联系,是开放的。来自边远地区的外来人被排斥在村庄的公共生活之外,形成了自己的群体,与村民很少交往。造成这种现象的原因是农村工业化和城市化与市场发育的不同步,地方政府在农村工业化和城市化过程中起到了主要的作用。这项研究说明,用“差序格局”和“村落共同体”的理论都无法正确地概括现在中国村庄的特征。     

Is small beautiful? Village level taxation of natural resources in Tanzania

This article examines collection of natural resources revenue by village governments in Tanzania as part of a decentralisation reform. An analysis of empirical data in the form of taxation records from 14 villages, which collect and retain revenues on natural resources utilisation suggests that decentralising revenue collection to the lowest local government tier may yield: (i) considerable increases in revenue collection; (ii) increased transparency in public finances through requirements that village governments document their incomes and expenditures to the villagers; and (iii) a financial surplus that is used to finance public services at the village level. The evidence presented in this article suggests that decentralising taxation to the lowest local government tier may be a viable approach to enhance revenue collection on the utilisation of relatively low value natural resources, and assure that a share of the collected revenue is used to finance public services. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Events data and policy analysis:

In the 1960s and 1970s the creation and analysis of coded international events data became a major tool for the analysis of international relations and crises. Unlike other quantitative projects developed by the academic community, the events data approach was transformed to applied research and used by various national security bureaucracies in the U.S. government. The approach was eventually rejected due to an aversion by bureaucrats to quantitative analysis systems and procedures which did not incorporate their expertise, organizational objectives and need for user-friendly and timely presentation. The lessons learned from this case can be used to inform current efforts by academics to transfer basic research to the foreign policy making community.     

Public participation in decision making: A three-step procedure

This article introduces a novel model of public particpation in political decisions. Structured in three consecutive steps, the model is based on the view that stakeholders, experts, and citizens should each contribute to the planning effort their particular expertise and experience. Stakeholders are valuable resources for eliciting concerns and developing evaluative criteria since their interests are at stake and they have already made attempts to structure and approach the issue. Experts are necessary to provide the data base and the functional relationships between options and impacts. Citizens are the potential victims and benefactors of proposed planning measures; they are the best judges to evaluate the different options available on the basis of the concerns and impacts revealed through the other two groups. The three-step model has been developed and frequently applied as a planning tool in West Germany. We compare this experience with the model's first application in the United States, and conclude that the three-step procedure offers a limited, but promising future for democratizing policy making in the United States.     

村落选举、公共性生产与合法性——以陕西Y村为例

转型期中国乡村基层村庄民主选举备受学界关注,学界分别从乡村治理、制度变迁、政治民主等角度考察这一问题。然而这些考察忽略了一个重要维度:乡村公共性主题。笔者认为这一主题才是乡村选举的实质和意涵。通过Y村选举及修路等涉及村落公共事务的个案,笔者考察当前村落选举与村庄公共性生产、村落公意和共识的关系,文章认为当前基层乡村依然延续了差序式的公共性生产模式。这种公共性生产模式与通过选举运作生产公共性的模式之间具有内在张力,正是这种张力导致试图透过西式选举达成村落公意和民众共识的设想在重建当代乡村公共性实践中遇到问题。     

再部落化现象:乡村治理的新挑战——基于湖南H村的研究

农村政治生活正面临着再部落化的新挑战。湖南H村的个案研究表明乡村再部落化有如下特点:首先,村民在宗族自然村而不是行政村或更大的政治实体寻求安全、生活和公共服务需求等方面的满足;其次,部落时期的直接互动模式并没有因为现代科技的发展而消失,反而进一步强化了村民的血缘关系,宗族内部甚至家族内部交往成为村民互动的主要形式;最后,基于亲属选择的合作逻辑,宗族自然村取代行政村成为实际上的有效治理单元。这种现象给农村治理带来了新的挑战:一方面是宗族自然村在村委会选举和政治运行上高度对立,引起了乡村社会的进一步分裂;另一方面是这种分裂和对立也导致了乡村信任半径的收缩。这既不利于凝聚人人有责的治理共识,也不利于推进人人尽责的集体行动,更不利于形成人人享有的分配结果。     

Elected leaders and collective land: Farmers’ evaluation of village leaders’ performance in rural China

Previous studies on village elections have focused on the election process, but few have examined post-election outcomes related to local land management systems. Land is the most important resource in Chinese villages, but land management and reallocation are the chief responsibility for elected village leaders. Previous studies show that villager attitudes toward the “fairness” of land reallocations and the type of village elections vary across villages. Some villages have an open election/nomination process while other villages have “closed” or unfair elections. We found that openly elected leaders are more accountable to villagers and that their land management decisions do reflect villager preferences for “fair” land reallocation. Our findings are based on a 2000–2001 survey of 34 villages in rural Shaanxi province. Rozelle is also a member of the Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics. We acknowledge the finical support of the Fulbright Fellowship and the University of California, Pacific Rim Research Fellowship. We want to thank the three anonymous reviews as well as Kevin O’Brien and Li Lianjiang for their comments and suggestions. In addition, we want to thank our friends and colleagues at Northwest University, Xian for all their help, collaboration and support. This paper was first presented in Chinese at the “Contemporary Rural Chinese Social Life” conference held at Hong Kong Polytechnic University November 21^st and 22^nd 2002.     

村组干部的更替与报酬--湖北J市调查

本文讨论了对村民自治具有决定性影响的村组干部的更替过程与报酬制度.本文认为,在村组干部由委任到选任的变化过程中,乡镇为了完成各项中心工作,而普遍采用了控制村组干部报酬数量与结构的措施.正是村组干部的报酬制度,决定了村组干部的行为方向,并成为决定村民自治状况的一个根本性因素.     

村干部竞选者的竞选动机及特点——基于需求ERG理论的实证研究

基于需求ERG理论与适应性行为理论,研究讨论了我国现阶段参与村干部选举中的竞选者动机,并根据事实驱动的研究策略,构建了参与村干部竞选的竞选动机量表,分析了现阶段我国村干部竞选者的竞选动机特征.研究表明,村干部竞选者参与竞选主要包括社会关系、经济收入、权力权利、公共服务和跟风盲从等五种动机.研究发现,从村干部竞选者整体来看,最重要竞选动机是对社会关系的追求,其次是对经济收入和权力权利的追求,对公共服务和对跟风盲从的追求显著低于前三者;从村干部竞选者个体来看,基于性别、年龄、教育、收入、工作经历等不同的需求各异的竞选者竞选动机各有不同.研究丰富了我们对村民自治参与的认识、农民政治参与的认识,为村庄选举制度的完善提供了理论依据.     

新时代村干部权力监督问题研究

村干部是我国农村社会治理中的关键角色。近年来,各级政府对农村的投入支持力度越来越大,村干部廉政风险也随之加大,一旦对村干部权力监督不够,容易引发村干部违纪违法现象,进而侵害农民群众的利益,损害党和政府的形象,危害党的执政根基。应通过进一步加强农村基层党组织党风廉政建设,提高村干部教育培训管理质量,创新农村基层民主监督方式方法,夯实村务监督委员会履职责任,推动巡察向村级党组织延伸等系统综合治理举措,为基层组织廉政建设提供强有力的保障,以确保新时代全面建设社会主义现代化国家顺利进行。     

农村党组织能力弱化的原因分析

目前部分农村党组织的能力出现不同程度的弱化，这与其他地区村党组织相比较而言，这些地区的利益群体，包括村支书与村党支部，村长与村民委员会，乡镇、村民与村民利益群体，他们各自的利益强亿及其共同作用促成了这种结果。     

Predictors of success in a participatory village development project in Thailand

Participatory development strategies are known to mobilize rural resources, but their effectiveness depends on local conditions. This article evaluates the potential importance of three facilitating factors: competing opportunities, development experience, and local leadership. The impact of these factors on project outcome is examined through study of a rural development project undertaken from 1982 to 1985 in southern Thailand. The project used participatory techniques to build self-guided problem-solving groups in 21 poor villages. The village groups launched income-generating, health, education and related efforts that attracted the participation of large numbers of village residents. Comparison of the village project experiences confirms that: participatory strategies are more effective in villages that (1) are relatively isolated from competing urban opportunities (villagers are more prepared to invest their own resources in the community); (2) have prior experience with development efforts and community endeavours (villagers are more open to learning new approaches); (3) hold greater confidence in traditional village leaders and local government agents. When local leadership is not held in great confidence, participatory strategies are found to encourage the emergence of new leadership that can successfully guide project efforts.     

类型比较视野下的中国村庄“人情”研究

本文基于多个中国村庄的经验材料,对当下农村的"人情"状况展开了总体性的研究。根据"人情"在各个村庄中的异质性表现,文章归纳了三种类型的村庄,并具体分析了"人情"异质性背后的村庄社会基础,着重指出了"人情"异化的原因,并对如何改造异化的"人情"作出了初步探讨。     

Upgrading the managerial process of small entrepreneurs in West Africa

In spite of their contribution to employment and value-added of the economies of West African countries, the future of small enterprises depends on their financial viability. To this management efficiency makes a crucial contribution and available empirical evidence surveyed in this article shows major weaknesses in it. Often the right motivations are lacking, problems are ill-defined and record keeping as a major tool of information gathering and analysis is not practised. It is argued that more detailed investigation of the managerial processes of these enterprises should be undertaken as a basis for innovating in management practices in a way that is adapted to the needs and circumstances of the heterogenous types of small enterprises in West Africa. It is also suggested that facilities available for management training are too centralized adequately to reach rural towns and villages. A decentralized approach to extension should make training facilities more accessible to larger numbers of small entrepreneurs. The inclusion of management training in the traditional apprenticeship system and in the curricula of government trade and vocational training centres would also bring benefits.     

村官归谁管——对有关村民自治问题的思考

村民自治作为中国农村向现代社会转变的制度形式,近年来,得到了很大的发展。许多学者对此进行了深入地研究,并把重点放在了乡村选举方面。然而民主选举村干部,只是村民自治的第一步,如何使民主选举出的村干部遵照村民的意愿正确行使职权则是关键,这涉及到如何封其进行监督和管理的问题,村民一旦把村干部选出来就觉得自己的民主权利已行使,忽视了选举后监督管理的问题,上级又因法规等的限制无权干涉村民自治方面的工作,封村官的监督造成了漏洞。本文就村干部的监督和管理问题进行了探讨．总结对其管理的各种途径,探索行之有效的方法和策略。     

Sharing natural resource management responsibility: Examining the New Zealand rock lobster co-management experience

Co-management, in which government and resource users share responsibility for managing a natural resource, is attracting considerable attention in both public policy and common pool resource research. However, little is understood about how this approach arises in a mature regulatory setting, or about its strengths and weaknesses. This study uses the experience of the New Zealand rock lobster (Jasus edwardsii and Sagmariasus verreauxi) industry to illustrate what co-management is and how it develops. This is followed by an assessment of co-management in this regime. Development of co-management is an evolutionary process that requires commitment from both government and industry. Strengthened property rights and management expertise provide the incentives and tools to develop a robust co-management regime. However the characteristics of the property rights bundle must be carefully matched to the regime’s biological, social, and regulatory setting.     

Policy analytic implications for a theory of prediction and decision

Decision theory developed to prescribe the consistent choice behavior under uncertainty of an ideal individual. The policy analysis context of organizational decision-making, however, necessitates certain modifications to the fundamental decision theory in order to deal with the problems of group consensus, ill-defined objectives and disparate information sources. The argument is presented that more attention must be given to the explicit formulation of judgment and that, in particular, there has to be an integration of the methodology of forecasting into the decision-analytic framework. A consequence of adopting a decision-theoretic approach to forecasting is the apparent need to develop ways of synthesizing the set of available predictive methods in order to satisfy the subjectivist principle of total evidence utilization. The synthetic approach to forecasting is in contrast to the conventional selective method. A brief review of some operational methods of pursuing the synthetic approach is given.     

Female family size ideals as population policy objectives for Latin America: Demographic and methodological considerations

This paper discusses the use of female family size ideals in the formulation of population policies in Latin America and the demographic implications of and barriers to the attainment of this objective. Using a specially developed cohort projection model that incorporates contraceptive activity and resource limitations, the authors empirically analyze El Salvador, Mexico and Venezuela.Results indicate that in the next two decades most cohorts of women now in the reproductive ages will experience completed family size at levels that far exceed stated ideal family size. Using data based on optimistic assumptions concerning the effectiveness of family planning services, the authors feel that achieving ideal family size could be possible. Despite the apparent difficulties involved in reducing the high fertility of these populations, the authors conclude that family size ideals as stated by women deserve further attention as a policy alternative.This is a revised version of a paper given at the 1975 Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America, Seattle, Washington, April 1975. Research for this paper was funded by Population Council Grant T73.54.