Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No. 3, 2023

All-round Rural Revitalization: Governmental Performance Goals and Farmers’ Sense of Betterment

(Abstract)

Zheng Fanghui

As the necessary route for the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and the modernization of the country, comprehensively promoting rural revitalization requires that the government play a leading role in maintaining the principal position of farmers. The leading role of the government is reflected in top-level design, resource allocation and implementation, with its core criteria focusing on the government’s performance goals. The principal position of the farmers in the revitalization requires that it is guided by the needs of the farmers, their basic rights to autonomous choice, discretion in standards, process participation and realization of interests must be respected and maintained. The ultimate goal of rural revitalization is making the farmers happier and more satisfied. This can be effectively measured by using the indicator of farmers’ sense of betterment. Using the management principle of the “curve effect” and the quantitative analysis method, we found an inverted U-shaped relationship between government performance goals and farmers’ sense of betterment. Specifically, to realize the strategic goal of rural revitalization, performance goals of local government should to be precisely set by a value orientation that is in accordance with rural reality and characteristics, and the farmers’ wishes and sense of improvement; the dynamic mechanism for government-led rural revitalization should be based on increasing farmers’ income by deepening reform, optimizing the system of goals by satisfying the farmers’ demands, enhancing farmers’ participation on the basis of rule of law, and guiding local governments by evaluating their performance.