A Sociological Study on Restructuring the Self-governmental System of Local Communities under Decentralization

本研究探讨了分权下地方社区自治体制的重构途径。我们在2004年2月至2005年5月期间，对全国11个地方自治团体的11439名社区负责人、全国37个地方自治团体的5104名公务员、大阪市T市的4名市议员进行了问卷调查。这里我们重点介绍一些主要的发现。社区领袖从事相当多的自给自足活动，但塑造社区自我认同的领袖网络相当丰富。这有助于加强邻里之间的相互支持，是建立社区情感和参与社区活动的关键因素，并加强社区功能网络。在促进自力更生备灾方面发挥积极作用的社区领导人具有很强的互助倾向，并致力于……更自主地开展备灾活动。在对当地城镇防灾问题的认知上，他们也倾向于通过互助参与来支持互助问题，这表明他们作为社区领导者的认知是有坚实基础的。推动地方教育活动，充分整合家庭、学校、社区和政府，需要人力资源（能够领导和协调的优秀领导者）、公共关系活动和政府合作。在考察地方政府对低级别职位的晋升政策时，我们观察到，通过缩小晋升的分布，地方政府向统一的资历模式转变，而对高级别职位，地方政府通过降低晋升的概率，向锦标赛模式转变。这两种趋势都增加了员工对组织的依恋，是合理的。地方政府工作人员在晋升过程中，对所在部门的忠诚程度越来越高（“行政人”），而在晋升到高层后，他们开始更加努力地为公共利益服务，并逐渐养成更强的自律和责任感（“公共人”）

This study explores ways to restructure the self-governmental system of local communities under decentralization. We investigated this issue by distributing questionnaires and interviewing three groups of subjects : 11,439 community leaders from 11 local governments spread across the country, 5,104 government employees from 37 local governments nationwide, and four city council members from T city in Osaka (between Feb.2004 and May 2005). Here we highlight some of the main findings.1.Community leaders engage in considerable self-sufficient activities, but the network of leaders shaping the self-identity in communities is quite abundant. This serves to strengthen neighborhood mutual support, is a key factor in building community sentiment and participation in community activities, and strengthens community functional networks.2.Community leaders who take an active role in promoting self-reliant disaster preparedness have a strong orientation toward mutual assistance and are committed to … More an autonomous approach to disaster preparedness activities. And in the way they perceive local town disaster prevention issues, they also tend to support mutual-help issues through mutual-help participation, which suggests solidly-grounded perception as community leaders.3.Promotion of local educational activities that fully integrate home, school, the community, and government demands human resources (good leaders who are capable of leading and coordinating), public relations activities, and government cooperation.4.Examining local government promotion polices toward lower-ranking positions, we observed a shift toward a uniform seniority model by shrinking the distribution of promotions, and toward higher-ranking positions a transition toward a tournament model by reducing the probability of advancement. Both of these trends have the effect of increasing the attachment of employees to organizations, and are rational.5.Local government employees become increasingly loyal to their departments as they are promoted ("Administrative Man"),then as they move into the upper echelons, they begin to strive more to serve the public interest and develop more self-discipline and a greater sense of duty ("Public Man") Less