Study on The Governance Model of "Integration of Development Zone and Town" From the Perspective of Scale Reconstruction-- Take South Jiangsu Region of China as an Example

Abstract

The county economy in South Jiangsu, supported by development zone and town, is the representative model of Chinese urbanization. However, in the process of rapid urbanization, differences in management systems between development zone and town lead to conflicts in the areas of rights boundary and social management responsibility, which is not conducive to the overall development of the region. Under the guidance of new urbanization, the overall development strategy of building a "Development Zone and Town Community" has become the consensus of southern Jiangsu with the integration of development zone and town governance as a means.

This paper takes 27 development zones and 43 towns in southern Jiangsu Province as empirical objects. With the help of the scale reconstruction theory, this paper establishes the re-scaling analysis framework of "Power-Space", analyzes the type characteristics and driving mechanism of "Integration of Development Zone and Town", and tries to answer the research question of "how local governments can innovate governance models through the flexible scale reconstruction strategy of district-town integration".In order to provide theoretical basis and decision-making suggestions for the policy making of local government governance innovation and the application and promotion of district and town integrated governance practice in China.

The study found: (1)Administrative level and industrial strength determine the diversification of integrated governance types of development zone and town, and the four types of "Linkage Platform, Agreement Cooperation, Unified Administration, and Trusteeship Embedding" are differentiated, indicating that the integration of the development zone and town is a governance action tailored to local conditions, reflecting the change of local governance thinking from rigid spatial governance to flexible system design. (2)Integrated governance of development zone and town is an effective means to promote the non-agricultural development of town by relying on development zone. On the one hand, by virtue of the advantages of industry and investment promotion, the development zone promotes the development of town, and breaks the embarrassing situation of the mismatch between power and responsibility of town; On the other hand, town provide new opportunities for the re-entrepreneurship of the development zone, and make up for the lack of social governance in the development zone. (3)Driven by new-type industrialization, new-type urbanization and governance modernization, the power relationship between development zone and town is adjusted and the spatial redistribution pattern is optimized through flexible re-scaling strategies such as the establishment of cooperation mechanisms or innovative administrative systems, reflecting the institutional environment reconstruction and governance behavior changes under the game of multi-level power subject relations between cities, development zone and town.