Chapter 16 Chapter Four: How the Scales Are Tilted——3 Dragons Drought

Li Shaobai, the retired director of the Water Conservancy Bureau of Shucheng County, was one of the top ten model members of Shucheng when the army crossed the river. Democratic mayor".He is still very excited when talking about the years when New China was full of vigor and vitality like the rising sun. He said that when it was first liberated, there was a lot of waste waiting to be done. Even so, the Shucheng county government only had four departments of civil affairs, finance, education, and construction. Each department had no more than five or six people, and at most a dozen people. "People from the county party committee and the county government gathered around the cafeteria to eat, and all the tables were filled."

At that time, there were only five or six people in a township in addition to the head and instructors, as well as the clerks and financial staff.Although there were few people, there were many things to do at that time. Thanks to everyone's concerted efforts, various tasks in a township were carried out vigorously.It was not until 1956, when the size of the township was enlarged, that the township party committee consisted of only the chief and deputy secretaries, the head of the organization, and the propaganda committee members, and the mass organizations consisted of only the secretary of the Youth League committee, the chairman of the women's federation, the minister of armed forces, and the chairman of the agricultural association. Up to six or seven people; the township government is equipped with chiefs and deputy heads accordingly, and has a few committees under it. The head of the township relies on these committees to carry out their work. Or officers, there are only about eight or nine people.The two teams of the party committee and the government add up to only fourteen or five people.

We also checked some data from that year, and found that in 1952, the central government had a clear regulation that each township had a limit of three full-time cadres.Even after the expansion of the township's administrative divisions and the establishment of institutions, the committee members of the township government were all activists among the masses, and they were all permanent workers.In addition, at that time, the government orders were smooth, the discipline was strict, and the world was on the rise. The cadres who were full-time, part-time or not full-time were basically able to go up and down, come out and enter, and be able to function as officials.It can be said that from the early 1950s to the early 1980s, the salaries and office expenses of township personnel were allocated by the county finance.It was during the period of communeization, which was equivalent to the current political and social integration system implemented by township-level people’s communes. At that time, the party, government, armed forces, and economy were integrated into one. In addition to the Minister of Armed Forces, the Secretary of the Youth League Committee, and the Director of the Women's Federation, there are the "eight major members": agricultural machinery administrators, animal husbandry administrators, water conservancy administrators, agricultural technology extension officers, and forestry administrators.The rural institutions at that time were still very capable.

After the reform of the economic system of "big contract" was implemented in the countryside, the organizational system of the people's communes, which "integrated government and society", was also reformed.During the three-year work of "removing communes and building townships," 56,000 communes across the country were restructured into 92,000 townships.The state allows township governments to use the profits and management fees handed over by township enterprises, various fund-raising and donation income, and various fines as self-raised income for township finance. The "three chaos" of random fundraising and random fines opened the door to convenience.Afterwards, with a series of reform measures that tended to "decentralize power and transfer profits" and the fiscal contract policy of "separate cooking" was introduced successively, a clear-cut interest relationship between governments and departments at all levels was formed, so Those departments that possessed state power and "divided troops" into various fields of rural economic development quickly became actors who both monopolized power and pursued interests.Once our cadres develop into a special interest class, it will be inevitable to compete with the people for profit.

As of 1990, there were as many as 149 items that could be levied on farmers by documents issued by various ministries and commissions of the State Council alone!As a result, the interests of local government departments at all levels began to expand, with more and more charging items, a wider range of charging, and higher charging standards.Due to the lack of corresponding constraints and checks and balances in management, many matters that were originally within the scope of work of government departments have also set up special institutions and hired "assistants" in order to charge fees.

Who consumed the fruits of rural reform? ——Infinitely expanding institutions and infinitely increasing bureaucrats! The 1980s was the period when the Chinese government made the most efforts to streamline institutions and divert personnel, but it happened to be the period when county and township institutions and personnel increased the fastest. In 1979, there were 2.79 million cadres in our country's party and government organs, and in 1989 it rose to 5.43 million.Among them, the fastest rising and almost out of control are at the county and township levels.Institutions and personnel at the county and township levels have increased at least tenfold in this continuous streamlining!By 1997, the number of party and government cadres in our country had reached more than 8 million, and the increase in the number of cadres was roughly equivalent to the number of 1,269,000 laid off from state-owned enterprises during the same period.During this period, the soaring number of institutions and personnel at the county and township levels was even more unprecedented.

"Simplification-expansion-re-simplification-re-expansion-big simplification-big expansion" seems unbelievable, but it is an iron fact, which cannot but make people feel inexplicably sad. We know from the relevant information we have consulted that among the more than 200 countries today, eight small countries have only one level of central government; twenty-five have only two levels of central and local governments; Many big countries, including the United States, Japan, Canada, and Australia, only have three levels of government; while our country now has a five-level system: central-provincial-city-county-township, which is unique. "specialty of China"!

Not only are there many levels of institutions, but the institutional settings at each level are overlapping and the division of labor is too detailed.Only in the same county-level organization, there used to be only one agricultural bureau related to "agriculture, rural areas and farmers". Now in addition to the agricultural bureau, there are also agricultural reclamation bureaus, animal husbandry bureaus, fishery bureaus, water conservancy bureaus, forestry bureaus, and township enterprise bureaus. , Agricultural Resources Development Bureau and other departments have similar businesses, but there are many departments.Everyone is in charge, and no one is responsible. This kind of overlapping and repetition is bound to lead to the phenomenon of buck-passing.

Why do so many people have to do something that can be done by one person? So many departments don't care about farmers' affairs at all, but why do farmers have to pay for their livelihood? Let's just talk about villages and towns.The current townships have maintained a corresponding relationship with the county-level institutions. In addition to the "six sets of teams", secondary institutions such as industry, agriculture, commerce, education, military, finance, youth, and women are all available.The original "Eight Members" of the People's Commune have now been upgraded to stations, offices, and offices, and many of them have been given the title of law enforcement.Some people joked: Except that there is no Ministry of Foreign Affairs in townships, other institutions are basically as complete as the central state organs.

There are many temples, and there are many Bodhisattvas.Generally, there are two to three hundred people in township agencies, and even eight hundred to one thousand people in developed areas.These people do not create a penny of output value and profit, but they have to be paid wages and bonuses; Equipped with "Big Brother".This was unimaginable in the past, because at that time there were only one or two jeeps in a county, and Jiao Yulu, Secretary of the Lankao County Party Committee, rode bicycles until his death. The farmer laughed at himself: "Dozens of big caps control a broken straw hat."

In 1998, Assistant Minister of Finance Liu Changkun revealed: "Eight thousand people supported one official in the Han Dynasty, three thousand people supported one official in the Tang Dynasty, one thousand people supported one official in the Qing Dynasty, and now forty people support one civil servant." In fact, there is no need for any shocking facts, and these simple figures alone are sufficient to illustrate the urgency of reforming government institutions.