Research team on rural governance of China Development Research Foundation, by Qin Qingwu and Liu Yang

Research Report No 175, 2014 (Total 4674)

Abstract:

Rural community construction is an important issue in the development of rural areas, but it is not an easy thing. Over the past few years, many places have been exploring rural community construction through village revocation and combination. For example, Zhucheng, a county-level city in Shandong Province, has explored rural community by providing public services in rural communities along with guiding farmers who want to newly build or renovate their housing to live in central gathering places, with a series of support policies. This report studies the process and features of Zhucheng's village revocation and community construction, and shows the preliminary progress made in promoting equalization of public service in urban and rural areas, in helping governments transform their functions from managing to providing service and in re-establishing rural economic collectives. At the same time, Zhucheng's practice has also faced challenges, including insufficient funds for the operation of new communities, less public participation and hollowing out of some communities. In fact, it just begins when we explore how to make use of the community agglomeration effect and improve public service level, in the village revocation and community construction.