What is the difference between a community and a village?

The main difference is that the village-level administrative unit in the city is called the community, and in the countryside it is still called the village (administrative village).

Specifically, the difference lies in:

Due to the different order and social structure of urban and rural areas in the institutional change, urban communities and rural villagers' autonomy are different in the path and characteristics of institutional change:

First of all,

Since the rural economic reform started from the scattered and backward countryside, the rural villagers' autonomy has a strong spontaneity from the beginning, and the characteristics of villagers' autonomy are more prominent. Urban community autonomy has a strong planning, which is mainly produced in the process of the government consciously promoting community construction. Community autonomy is only included in community construction, and its characteristics have not been fully revealed.

Second,

As the main organization in rural areas, rural villagers' committees have a strong substitution for the original people's commune organizations. The community neighborhood committee established in urban community construction emphasizes the community foundation, which does not and cannot completely replace the original urban organization. Mainly to provide a brand-new institutional platform for urban governance.

Third,

In rural villagers' self-government activities, the subjects of self-government are basically natural persons. In cities, there are a large number of units and organizations besides residents who are natural persons. Therefore, on the institutional platform of urban community autonomy, corporate bodies also play an important role in autonomous activities, but their status and role are different from those of natural persons.

Fourth,

The basis of rural villagers' autonomy is the collective ownership of land and other means of production. Villagers are natural members of the village at birth and automatically enjoy autonomy. However, urban communities have no common economic foundation, and community members are difficult to define and have strong mobility. Born in a certain community, you are not necessarily a member of that community. Not born in a certain community, but may become a member of the community and enjoy the right of community autonomy.

Fifth,

Village committees in rural areas have certain economic management functions, and autonomous activities include not only public social affairs, but also economic affairs. In cities, economic affairs are mainly undertaken by various enterprises, and community autonomous organizations generally do not undertake the function of managing economic affairs. The content of independent activities is mainly non-economic and social development. Therefore, community autonomy is closely related to community construction, and autonomy is closely related to democracy. Democracy is based on equal individual rights. Equal individual rights come from equal property control.

In rural areas of China, the main means of production such as land are owned by collectives, and farmers who are members of the collectives are both laborers and economic sovereigns. Because of this, the people's commune system gives the members' congress and the members' congress different degrees of management power, which contains certain factors of democratic autonomy. However, the domination of administrative integration and political and social integration makes the space for this kind of democratic autonomy very limited. The economic reform of "dividing fields into households" and the political reform of "separating politics from society" in rural areas have provided a broad institutional space for democratic autonomy.

After the abolition of the commune system, villagers' self-governing organizations have a strong substitution. The villagers' committee replaced the management committee of the original production team, and the villagers' group replaced the original production team. For a long time, quite a few villagers used to call the villagers' committee the brigade and the villagers' group the production team. However, the village committee organization is fundamentally different from the original commune organization. The most important thing is that production will not be directly organized after "dividing fields into households"; Due to the separation of politics and society, it no longer directly exercises the functions of political power. Its main function is to engage in public affairs management and develop public utilities on the basis of independent production and operation by one household. Village public affairs and public welfare undertakings are directly related to the immediate interests of villagers, such as the acquisition of contractual management rights, the collection of taxes and fees, the distribution of economic interests of village collectives, the establishment and financing of public welfare undertakings such as village schools and village highways, the work subsidies of village cadres, and the public finance of village collectives. This makes the village public affairs and public welfare undertakings must rely on the extensive participation of villagers, who are in the position of sovereign. Therefore, the villagers' committee was constructed in accordance with the principle of democratic autonomy from the beginning. 1998 Article 2 of the Organic Law of Villagers' Committees of the People's Republic of China clearly stipulates: "Villagers' committees are grass-roots mass self-governing organizations for villagers' self-management, self-education and self-service, and implement democratic elections, democratic decision-making, democratic management and democratic supervision." At the same time, the law also stipulates that villagers' committees shall be established in accordance with the principle of being conducive to mass autonomy, and the villagers' committees shall be responsible for the villagers' meetings and report their work, and important issues in the village must be discussed and decided by the villagers' meetings. It can be seen that the organizational system of rural villagers' autonomy originated from commune organization in form, but it is essentially different from commune organization in nature, mainly because the villagers' sovereign status can be expressed in corresponding forms. In order to ensure this sovereign status, mechanisms of democratic election, democratic decision-making, democratic management and democratic supervision have been established in the operation of village committees. Democratic election means that members of villagers' committees must be directly elected by villagers, and democratic decision-making means that important issues in the village must be discussed and decided by villagers' meetings or villagers' representative meetings. Democratic management means that village affairs management must follow the system of villagers' autonomy and other rules and regulations jointly formulated by villagers, and listen to villagers' opinions extensively. Democratic supervision means that the work of villagers' committees must accept the direct supervision of villagers and make village affairs public. Therefore, from the perspective of system creation, rural villagers' autonomy emphasizes villagers' participation and has a strong folk and equal color.

Different from rural villagers' autonomy, urban community autonomy is formed on the new institutional platform of community. Although the main body of community autonomy is residents, it highlights its community regionality. In particular, community autonomy has a strong government planning in community construction. In the early stage of community construction, government departments consciously or unconsciously built community organizations according to the government model, which made community organizations have a strong administrative color. For example, in community construction, some places set up community management committees according to the model of local administrative organizations, and the community leaders are called "alley prime ministers"; According to the model of local people's congresses, community members' congresses should be established, and the system of community members' congresses should not be implemented. The former is called "kotoo"; Establish a community consultation Committee according to the model of local CPPCC. If community party organizations are added, the community, like the state system, has established the so-called "four leading bodies".

Administrative community organizations are characterized by strong elitism and representative democracy in their operating mechanism, and the extensive and direct participation of community members is seriously insufficient. For example, before the central document No.23 was issued, the election of community neighborhood committees was basically an indirect election of community members' congresses, and the recruitment, examination and election of community cadres were combined into one. The decision-making of community affairs is mainly made by community neighborhood committees, rarely discussed by community members' congresses, and no community members' meetings have been held.

Due to China's traditional national conditions and government-led reform and social transformation, at the beginning of community construction, the government's main purpose was to quickly build urban grass-roots organizations through administrative power, and the administrative nature of community organizations became more prominent. But after all, the community is not a first-level government, and it is difficult to obtain lasting motivation without the extensive participation of community members. With the expansion of community construction, some places began to build community organizations in the direction of democratic autonomy, which was recognized by the central government. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China Document No.23 regards expanding democracy and residents' autonomy as one of the basic principles of community building. It is stipulated that communities should be established in accordance with the principle of benefiting the autonomy of community residents, and community residents' committees are self-governing organizations of community residents. The community should implement democratic election, democratic decision-making, democratic management and democratic supervision, and community residents should gradually realize self-management, self-education, self-service and self-supervision. After the issuance of the two documents, it provided a broader institutional space for local bold exploration. In particular, some places use the experience of rural direct democracy to establish new community organizations. For example, in the community construction of small and medium-sized cities in Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Shanghai, the newly established community self-governing organizations implement direct election of community members, and provide more institutionalized channels for residents to directly participate in community affairs management through "building door autonomy", residents' forums and public affairs. In many places, community organizations are no longer established according to the national system, but according to the principle of community autonomy, such as emphasizing the status and role of community members' meetings. In particular, some cities with developed market economy attach great importance to the cultivation of community intermediary organizations, so that community autonomy can better reflect the characteristics of bottom-up.