The age of village cadres in the central and western regions should not be "one size fits all."
Research Group of China Rural Governance Center, Wuhan University.
One. Basic information.
Recently, we have investigated the building of rural grassroots organizations in a number of provinces and cities, and found that some areas in the central and western regions have imposed rigid requirements on the age of village cadres in the general election, and the implementation of the "one-size-fits-all" policy has disrupted the order of the villages, which is not conducive to the building of the ranks of village cadres and the prosperity and development of the villages.
Some counties and cities in the western region require new village (community) cadres to focus on selecting those under the age of 45 who have a college degree or above, and that the successor village (community) cadres are generally not more than 55 years old and have a high level of Chinese education. Even the age of the village group leader must not exceed 55 years old.
In one of the towns we investigated, there were 10 administrative villages and more than 40 village cadres, and in the 2021 general election, a total of 9 people retired due to age, including 3 village branch secretaries, 3 village committee directors, 2 women directors, and 1 clerk. These village cadres believe that they have contributed to the country and demand that the social security contributions after leaving office be solved, and at the same time the employment problem will be solved. The local township leader sighed, "A village secretary with outstanding work performance is still three months away from exceeding the age of 55, fortunately the general election was carried out early, otherwise one more capable person would have been lost." ”
A team leader surnamed Tang in a certain village (village leader) is 64 years old this year. After 2000, Captain Tang went out to work, but when he was older, he decided to return to his hometown, and returned to the village in 2013 to continue farming and take care of his grandson. Because he had been a team leader before, he was more enthusiastic about the public welfare undertakings of the group and the village, and actively made suggestions, and the villagers and village cadres were more recognized, so he was continued to be elected as the team leader. There are a total of 12 villager groups in the village, and there are 6 captains like Captain Tang, who are over 60 years old and conscientious and responsible for their work. After the implementation of the policy is one-size-fits-all, this part of the group can no longer continue to serve as captains, and the position of captain faces the dilemma of having no successor.
After the age of village cadres is cut across the board, this group lacks an organizational platform to participate in village public affairs, and a large number of activists are missing from rural construction and development, and even become passive elements because there is no social security after leaving office.
Two. Negative effects.
Village cadres are not civil servants, and the "one-size-fits-all" age of village cadres does not conform to the law governing the building of the ranks of village cadres, nor is it conducive to actual work in rural areas.
First, at present, the main force of the village population in the rural areas of central and western China is the group between the ages of 55 and 70, which is the main group of village cadres.
Surveys throughout the country have found that almost all young and middle-aged people under the age of 55 in rural areas are working outside the country to do business, and the main force in the villages is people between the ages of 55 and 70. This part of the group has basically completed the life task of building a house for their son and marrying a wife, and their life pressure is not great, and they have a lot of free time, and they belong to the family "people who do not have a heavy burden". These young and elderly people in rural areas who do not bear heavy burdens have already semi-withdrawn from the economy, and they need to have a broader social stage for life. They have more energy, time, enthusiasm and interest in participating in village governance, participating in the construction of village-level organizations, and serving the villagers. It is very suitable for them to be elected as village cadres or members of village-level public organizations.
Clause. 2. Veteran cadres have unique advantages in mass work.
Rural work involves every household and all aspects of the village, and it is necessary to deal with complex social relations, and the requirements for the work experience, quality and ability of village cadres are very high. Many village cadres in their 50s have lived in the village for a long time, worked long hours, had close contact with the lives of most of the villagers, had frequent personal interactions, were familiar with and understood the situation of the villagers and village affairs, and the villagers were also familiar with and trusted them. Judging from the actual experience of many localities, some village cadres in their 50s or even 60s are in the "first period" of being experienced, having no burden, and serving the masses. They are supported by the masses, have experience and methods in handling complex contradictions, have very strong work ability, and have outstanding achievements, and have every spare energy to continue their work.
Third, the hasty ascension of young cadres to their posts is not conducive to the development of villages.
At present, the degree of informatization of rural work is gradually improving, and many jobs need to "leave traces of work"; veteran cadres are inferior to young people in sorting out documents and materials, and the level of office informatization is not as good as that of young people, and they have insurmountable shortcomings, but they also have unique work advantages. Due to policy reasons, young cadres are in a hurry to take up positions, they lack the ability to deal with the masses, lack the experience of dealing with complex problems on the front line, and eventually it may be difficult to integrate team members to form a joint force to build a better home, which will adversely affect the development of the village.
Three. The contingent of rural cadres should be a combination of the old, the middle-aged and the young.
Judging from the actual situation of rural work, the age of village cadres should be moderately flexible, and the cadre contingent should be a combination of old, middle-aged and young people. The village-level leadership group maintains a certain degree of gradient matching of the old, middle-aged and young, so that cadres of all ages can show their strengths and get their own place, which is conducive to the integration of human resources, giving full play to the work advantages of village cadres of different ages, overcoming their disadvantages, making them complementary and mutually beneficial, mobilizing the enthusiasm of cadres of all ages, reducing the waste of cadre resources, and ensuring the normal cooperation and replacement of the leading groups, so as to improve the ability and level of serving the masses.
In short, in the general election of villagers' committees, the "one-size-fits-all" approach based on age alone has caused some villages to lose good cadres, and even caused social instability in individual villages.