基层政府中的“留痕形式主义”行为：一个解释框架

从中央和地方两个层面提出一个解释框架，对过度留痕的“形式主义”现象形成的原因进行考察。地方层面上，在信息不对称的委托代理格局下，下级政府要为上级政府发射信号来表明自己完成任务，从而为上级政府认可工作成效提供佐证，以规避政治风险。这一逻辑诱发了官员的“表面应对”行为；中央层面上，十八大之后中央权威急剧强化，各级政府强调落实，体制遂通过层层监督检查，传导压力来保证政策完成，然而受制于交易成本的约束，只能借助技术治理的方式对基层政府进行考核。又因为技术治理存在着自身的限度，导致宏观约束机制只能默许乃至鼓励“留痕形式主义”行为的出现。“形式主义”并不能看作是我们庞大体制中的“弊病”或者“顽疾”，而是政治体系在处理中央和基层两种治理逻辑的矛盾过程中所产生的自然表现，背后反映出政府围绕技术治理所展开的调试过程，表明政府内部正处于探索一条国家治理能力与治理体系现代化可实现路径的尝试之中。

The Behavior of "Leaving-trace Formalism" in Grass-roots Government:an Explanatory Framework

This paper attempts to put forward an explanatory framework from the Central Government and local levels to investigate the causes of the excessive formalism.At the local level,under the principal-agent pattern of asymmetric information,the lower-level government should send signals to the higher-level government to indicate that it has completed the task,so as to provide evidence for the higher-level government to recognize the effectiveness of the work and avoid political risks,thus this logic induces officials’ "superficial coping" behavior.At the Central Government level,after the 18th CPC National Congress,the authority of Central Government was sharply strengthened,and governments at all levels tried to ensure the completion of the policy through layers of supervision and inspection and thetransmission of pressure.However,subject to the constraints of transaction costs,grass-roots governments can only be assessed by means of technological governance,and because of its limits,the macro-restraint mechanism can only acquiesce in or even encourage the emergence of "leaving-trace formalism".Formalism cannot be regarded as a stubborn disease in our huge system,but as a natural manifestation of the political system in the process of dealing with the contradiction between the Central Government and the grass-roots governance logic,reflecting the debugging process carried out by the government around technological governance,indicating that the government is attempting to explore a path that can be realized by the modernization of the national governance capacity and governance system.