【作者简介】练宏 中山大学中国公共管理研究中心、政治与公共事务管理学院

【文章来源】《社会》2023年第6期

【内容提要】一个令人困惑的组织现象是政府日常实践中存在法律规则、会议规则和口头规则的混合使用，已有文献大多从法学、历史学和政治学角度切入，缺乏更具基础性的组织学分析。本研究发现，近年来制度环境从注重效率向追求效率与程序并重转变，这给地方政府带来更具刚性化的制度安排。当面临这一情况时，地方政府不得不利用会议规则和口头规则，通过简化处理、松动前置条件和派生规则补充等方式，软化程序约束，以推动地方项目建设效率和经济发展。当然，这一多规运作后续将诱发三大若隐若现、循环往复和稳定再生的组织张力：多重规则的学习替代、多重规则的认可冲突、多重官僚人格的内在紧张。本研究关注了既有文献长期忽视的以会议纪要和复函为主的灵活规则，有助于打开政府内部规则运作的黑箱。

【关 键 词】规章制度, 法律规则, 会议规则, 口头规则, 政府行为

【全文链接】https://www.society.shu.edu.cn/CN/Y2023/V43/I6/181

Between Procedure and Efficiency: A Study on the Multi-Rule Operation of Local Governments

Abstract: This paper provides an organisational analysis of governance by taking the rule practice in government construction projects as a case study. The study finds that in recent years, there have been a series of changes in the institutional environment, including a shift from focusing on efficiency to pursuing both efficiency and procedures, resulting in an increase of regulations and protocols in decision-making processes. These changes have to a great extent changed the traditional characteristics of "weak regulations and strong execution" and have formed a structural feature of "strong regulations and slow implementation", affecting the speed of task completion in local governments. Under the performance pressure of economic development, local governments have made full use of rules by meeting minutes and verbal commands within the established legal framework to soften procedural constraints for more efficient operations of local governments through simplifying processing, loosening prerequisites and supplementing secondary rules. Nevertheless, this multi-rule operation may induce three potential organisational tensions:the learning substitution of multiple rules, the recognitive conflicts of multiple rules, and the inherent tensions among bureaucratic personalities. Overall, the multi-rule operation is the product of changes in the institutional environment and the result of balancing the relationship between "tiao" (条, refers to the vertical line of authority over a particular sector) and "kuai" (块, refers to the horizontal line of authority over a particular locality) matrix of the unique Chinese bureaucratic system. This study sheds light on the flexible rules based on government meeting minutes and approvals, filling the gap in understanding the internal rule operations within Chinese bureaucracy.

Key words: regulation, legal rule, meeting rule, oral rule, governmental behavior