Party and government levels are responsible for territorial management, and whoever is in charge is responsible for interpretation.

"Territorial management and graded responsibility" means that the problem of letters and visits should be solved by the local government in principle. If the local government cannot solve it, it can also be solved by the government at the next higher level. The lower level government cannot directly push the contradiction to the higher level government. "Who's in charge is responsible" means that after the government at which level is responsible for letters and visits, the government department in charge of this work should bear specific responsibilities and cannot push the contradiction to the government.

Predicament and harm of imbalance of power and responsibility in territorial management

The dilemma of "territorial management" is directly manifested in the unequal rights and responsibilities in grassroots governance. In the name of "shifting the focus of governance", the functional departments at higher levels have transferred a lot of work, especially risky and thorny work, to the grass-roots government by signing responsibility forms and task books, issuing documents at meetings, and supervising the work leading group. Faced with the enormous pressure of accountability and work, grass-roots governments lack corresponding power and are unable to allocate resources, and fall into "great responsibility", "territorial management and graded responsibility" and gradually evolve into "responsibility territory". In the long run, the dilemma of the imbalance between power and responsibility will inevitably induce the behavior of evading responsibility, promote formalism and bureaucracy, and more seriously, it may even dampen the enthusiasm and courage of grassroots cadres and officers to start businesses, seriously damaging the effectiveness of grassroots governance.

The dilemma of imbalance of power and responsibility in territorial management will induce the behavior of evading responsibility. The behavior of evading responsibility refers to the behavior of party and government cadres with personal "initiative" who take advantage of their special position in the management subject network of "territorial management" to deliberately evade their own responsibilities in order to safeguard their own security and interests. The imbalance of power and responsibility in territorial management is likely to lead to the cycle of responsibility avoidance strategies between superior units and subordinate units. Repeated iteration of responsibility avoidance strategy will hinder the effective promotion of decision-making, affect the implementation of policies and weaken the implementation of policies. When the superior unit feels that "power" is greater than "responsibility", it often adopts a top-down strategy, evades responsibility in the name of "defending the land", and uses its "position advantage" in the management subject network to transfer the tasks and responsibilities that should have been undertaken by itself to subordinate units; However, in reality, subordinate units do not always follow the vertical management logic, conscientiously implement the instructions of superiors with high quality, and may even adopt the strategy of "reverse avoiding responsibility", that is, in view of the fact that responsibility is greater than power and lacks the power and resources needed to undertake responsibility and complete tasks, in order to eliminate the accountability risk, subordinate units often transfer the decision-making power to superior units by asking for reports, and at the same time transfer responsibility and risk together.

To sum up, it is necessary to create a good atmosphere conducive to cadres and officers to start businesses and be brave in taking responsibility, build a fault-tolerant and error-correcting mechanism, dispel the motivation of cadres to evade responsibilities, comprehensively enhance the motivation of cadres and officers to start businesses, fully enhance the motivation level of cadres' public services, and enhance their enthusiasm and initiative of caring for people's interests and seeking for people's well-being. In the face of complex new tasks and challenges, only by taking the initiative to take responsibility in the spirit of responsibility can we fundamentally solve the imbalance between power and responsibility of "territorial management".

Legal basis:

Opinions on comprehensively promoting the openness of government affairs

According to the principles of territorial management, graded responsibility, and who is in charge is responsible, the responsible department involved is the first responsible subject to respond to the government's public opinion. The relevant departments of the State Council are the main body to respond to the government's public opinion concerning major policies and important work arrangements in the State Council; Involving local government public opinion, the local responsible department is the main body of response; The competent department of the higher government is the main body to respond to the public opinion of government affairs involving many places. The government office (room) shall organize and coordinate with the propaganda department.