How to rebuild grassroots governance during the process of urbanization?
如何在城市化进程中重建基层治理？

China’s urbanization is marked by rapid changes in socio-economic structure of peri-urban villages. A key governance challenge derived from these changes is how to establish equilibrium among market-oriented reforms, reconfiguration of economic structure of the village, and villagers’ livelihood so that urbanizing villages may enjoy social stability, economic development, and prosperity at the same time. The local state plays an important role in addressing this challenge because it is responsible for implementing policies and managing relationships among the government, local communities, and villagers. Both of these responsibilities have practical ramifications for governance modernization. This case is derived from District A of Guangzhou City in Guangdong Province, the district that has experienced the whole process of being developed from traditional villages to peri-urban villages and then to urban core. The case sheds light on how grassroots governance can be restructured in urbanizing China.
城市化进程中，城郊农村的社会经济结构快速变化，这对基层治理提出了更高的要求。如何在市场化改革、经济结构变化、村民民生福利之间找到平衡点，从而实现社会稳定、经济发展和村民生活富足是城市化村庄普遍面临的挑战。作为具体政策落实主体的地方政府，能够在城市化进程中发挥能动性，处理好政府、社区和村民之间的关系，对实现治理现代化有重要的现实意义。广州市A区的城市化经历了完整的将传统村庄变为城郊村、再变为城市中心的过程，其基层治理重建的过程值得借鉴。

There are four milestones in the process of restructuring grassroots governance in District A. In the 1980s, the district government responded villagers’ requests with various types of financial compensation and non-agricultural hukou. These responses, in turn, led villagers and village collectives to accept the government’s requisition of their land. In the early 1990s, the district government introduced the “reserved commercial land” policy in response to decreased value of non-agricultural hukou and increased value of land. This policy enabled villagers and village collectives to have a share of the income generated from reserved commercial land. In so doing, social stability was achieved in District A’s urbanizing villages. In 1996, the district government promoted shareholding reforms to address the increasingly important governance issue of collective assets management. Since 2009, the district government has intervened in urbanizing villages’ livelihood affairs and public affairs (e.g., public security and environmental management). These interventions have brought urbanizing villages of District A into the system of modern governance.
A区的城市化自1980年代开始，在以征地为主要手段的城市化过程中，A区政府基于村民的诉求，通过包括农村户口转城市户口在内的一系列补偿措施，使得农民和村庄集体普遍接受土地被征用。到1990年代，在城市户口价值降低而土地价值进一步提高后，A区政府推出了“经济自留地”政策，让村庄集体和村民分享土地增值收益，从而实现了城市化的平稳推进。随着集体资产壮大，集体资产管理成为城市化村庄治理的重要事项，A区因此自1996年开始推动集体资产股份制改革。股份制改革后的集体资产管理又出现了诸多新问题，例如新生儿、外嫁女是否可以有成员权等，应对这些问题，A区推动了集体资产股份固化政策，即“生不增、进不增、出不减、可继承”。自2009年开始，政府更是一边通过“三旧”改造介入到村民的民生事务和治安、环境管理等公共事务中，从而使城市化村庄进入到现代化的治理体系中。

This case demonstrates that the process of restructuring China’s grassroots governance is marked by an important feature, that is, local state’s gradual entry into the governance of urbanizing villages. This entry proceeds with local state’s responses to grassroots requests over time. It has also incrementally modernized the governance of urbanizing villages, particularly by replacing traditional village norms with modern governance practices.
从A区的例子可以发现，地方政府在城市化过程中，适时主动回应村庄集体和村民的诉求，从而保证了城市化的顺利推进。地方政府权力进入到城市化村庄是逐步推进且与基层诉求匹配的过程，在这个过程中，村庄治理也慢慢从传统的带有浓厚村规民约色彩的传统治理方式，向更现代化的治理方式转变。与此相伴的是，村民生活更加安定富足，社会治理也更加有序和谐。