Village Governance and Kinship in South China: A functionalism analysis

1978年改革开放之后,宗族组织在全国各地快速复兴,而且,随着1990年代以后村民自治的发展,农村基层民主组织与宗族组织之间的互动已成为村庄治理过程中不可回避的课题。在这个背景下,本文试图回答下面三个问题:(1)宗族组织在中国复兴的原因何在?(2)在当代中国的农村社区,宗族组织的存在,如何影响村庄民主的发展?(3)在一个村庄社区内,宗族与民主之间的互动类型,会导致什么样的治理绩效差异?实证分析的结果发现:(1)在华南农村,宗族组织的兴起,是在正式组织功能缺失的情况下,村民对于公共物品需求的一个替代性组织选择。(2)从表面上看,宗族组织并不会影响民主在形式上的推广;但是,宗族组织一旦发展之后,会限制基层民主的实质内涵。(3)宗族与民主在公共物品提供方面,并没有本质的差异。但是只有同时存在宗族与民主的村庄,才具有更高的治理绩效。

The relationship between village democracy and kinship has become a hot topic since 1978. This paper discusses three related issues: (a) the reason of the revival of kinship after 1978 in rural China; (b) the effect of kinship on village democracy; and (c) how the interaction of kinship and democracy affects the performance of village governance. Using a dataset of 800 groups conducted in Guangdong Province， the empirical results of this paper show: (a) the villagers functional demand on public goods was the reason of kinship revival when village collective collapsed after 1978; (b) kinship does not affect the development of village election in form，but it will limit the substance of grassroots democracy; ( c) there is no essential difference for kinship and village democracy in the provision of public goods if there is only one of them. The better performance of village governance comes true only when they coexist within the community.

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