Literature Review of New Village Movement in Korea

After decades of efforts, South Korea finally got rid of poverty and backwardness and stepped into the ranks of moderately developed countries. The "New Village Movement" has played an important role in the rapid development of Korean economy and the promotion of harmonious social development.

The South Korean government started the "New Village Movement" nationwide in the early 1970s (1April, 1970, park chung-hee put forward the idea of "Building a New Village Movement" at the meeting of drought-resistant countermeasures attended by local governors), with the aim of mobilizing farmers to jointly build a "comfortable nest", because the production and living conditions of Korean farmers, who accounted for more than 70% of the national population at that time, were backward and the government had no money, and they were in the "New Village Movement". Subsequently, the South Korean government selected 1.6 million villages as models of the "New Village Movement" to drive farmers across the country to actively create beautiful homes. In just a few years, the "New Village Movement" has changed the shabby and backward appearance of rural areas and made farmers taste the sweetness, thus gradually evolving into a spontaneous movement.

At the end of 1970s, the administrative leadership of the government withdrew from the "New Village Movement", and development committees led by administrative villages were spontaneously formed all over the country, all of which were farmers, and youth departments, women's departments, rural insurance departments, supervision committees and village funds were established. The main contents of the activities include farmers' spontaneous construction of rural roads, improvement of village environment, helping neighbors to build houses, setting up cultural undertakings, caring for and caring for the elderly, etc.

In the 1980s, the "New Village Movement" gradually completed the transformation from being led by the people and supported by the government to being completely led by the people. During this period, South Korea enacted laws for the "New Village Movement", made detailed provisions on the nature, organizational relationship and funding sources of the "New Village Movement", established the national leading organization "New Village Movement Headquarters", set up the "New Village Movement Guidance Department" in cities and provinces (equivalent to provinces), and set up rescue associations in cities and counties (equivalent to counties) to improve the "New Village Movement"

[Edit this paragraph] The evolution and influence of the New Village Movement

Over the past 30 years, the form and content of the "New Village Movement" have been continuously improved and enriched, and its social influence and appeal have been further expanded and strengthened, becoming a wide-ranging social mutual aid movement. The "New Village Movement" has carried out various activities such as "caring for the neighborhood harmoniously", "helping to restore the economy", "national park movement", "moral and discipline movement" and "caring for the environment". 1988 "Olympic Village Movement" during the Seoul Olympic Games and 1997 "Donation Movement" to save the national economy during the Asian financial crisis were both part of the "New Village Movement", which contributed to the success of the Seoul Olympic Games and the outbreak of the Asian financial crisis.

In the long-term development of the "New Village Movement", South Korea has formed the basic spirit of "diligence", "self-help" and "cooperation". The "new village movement" is not to change the social structure, but to carry forward the traditional virtues of the nation by tapping the potential "beauty" and "goodness" of the people, to make up for the omissions of government work and the blind spots of social development, to alleviate the bad feelings of the people, and thus to promote social harmony.

South Korea began to achieve economic take-off in the 1960s and 1970s, creating a "Seoul miracle", but regional development was uneven, the gap between the rich and the poor widened, and social contradictions intensified. The "New Village Movement" in this period relatively eased social contradictions, raised people's awareness of cooperation and harmony, and promoted social civilization and progress.

The "new village movement" originated in rural areas, and gradually entered urban communities while it was widely carried out in rural areas. With the development of industrialization, South Korea appeared the phenomenon of "leaving agriculture" in 1970s and 1980s, that is, a large number of farmers left the countryside to work in cities to make a living, the population and industry moved to cities, and the social culture of cities became prosperous. With the transfer of population and industry, the "new village movement" carried out in rural areas has gradually expanded to cities, helping cities solve the contradictions in municipal management, social order and public morality in the process of modernization. In the process of expanding to cities, the "New Village Movement" initiated by rural areas continuously sends talents with good moral and cultural qualities to cities, which to some extent avoids the excessive social problems brought by farmers' employment in cities.

Li Shoucheng, former prime minister of South Korea and chairman of the Central Committee of the "New Village Movement", believes that any ideological and moral education must have a carrier, otherwise everyone can only talk without practical actions. The "new village movement" is a good carrier to improve the national moral level, civilization level and social cohesion. People's participation in the "new village movement" can not only change the face of the countryside and the country, but also improve the ideological and moral level of the whole society. Indeed, South Korea's "new village movement" is not only the driving force of rural urbanization, but also the lubricant of harmonious economic and social development.

South Korea is a close neighbor of China, facing China across the sea, with a land area of about 654.38 million square kilometers and a population of about 45 million. However, the arable land in China is small, accounting for only 22% of the land area. 1945 After the retrocession, while promoting industrialization and urbanization, South Korea faced a serious imbalance in the development of industry and agriculture. From 1970, the Korean government began to formally organize and implement the new rural construction and development movement (referred to as the "new village movement"), and made successful practices in the balanced development of economy and society and the coordinated development of man and nature. Recently, in the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" proposal formulated by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, it is clearly stated that building a new socialist countryside is an important historical task in China's modernization process. In accordance with the requirements of production development, affluent life, civilized rural customs, clean village appearance and democratic management, we should proceed from the reality of all localities, respect the wishes of farmers and steadily promote the construction of new countryside. South Korea's agriculture, like China's, belongs to small-scale peasant production in East Asia and is deeply influenced by Confucian culture. The successful practice of South Korea's new village movement has important enlightenment for promoting the construction of new countryside in China.

[Edit this paragraph] The background of the New Village Movement in Korea

1962- 197 1 year, the Korean government implemented two five-year plans, focusing on supporting industrial development and expanding exports. However, during this period, the development of industry and agriculture was seriously unbalanced, and the growth gap between industry and agriculture widened, from 2.5% in the first five-year plan to 8% in the second five-year plan. 198. The large-scale disorderly flow of rural population has brought many urban and social problems. The rural labor force is aging and weak, and there is no successor to agriculture. In addition, the development of agricultural mechanization lags behind, leading to the collapse of agriculture in some rural areas. At the same time, the Korean economy has successfully relied on the export-oriented development model, and the government has the financial resources to support agriculture to narrow the gap between urban and rural areas, workers and peasants, and regions. In this social background, the new village movement came into being.

[Edit this paragraph] Main practices and achievements

(A) to stimulate villagers to participate in the new village movement. The Korean government recognizes that rural development needs farmers to raise their awareness and actively carry out various construction work. The government focuses on scientific guidance and support. Even if it is beneficial to the villagers, they should first seek their opinions and never enforce them. In order to mobilize the enthusiasm of farmers, the Korean government has taken the following three measures:

First, implement various development and construction projects in villages. Every February-March, each village carries out planned new village work, and the village plenary meeting studies and decides the specific project content, scale, implementation scope and expected goals. The Village Development Committee studies and formulates specific implementation operation plans, such as fund allocation, labor force arrangement, work schedule arrangement, etc., and records daily or weekly work progress, and accordingly formulates relevant measures, such as mobilizing villagers to supplement labor force, notifying the government, obtaining human and financial support, and analyzing countermeasures. To ensure the new village.

The second is to implement the development policy of rewarding the superior and punishing the inferior. In the new village movement, the government did not adopt the policy of equal distribution in supporting people and property. At the beginning, 300 bags of cement were provided for the public welfare undertakings in the village for free. According to the performance of each village in completing public utilities, the 35,000 villages in China are divided into three levels: self-reliance, self-help and basic. The best performers are classified as self-reliant villages, and the worst are classified as basic villages. In the second year, the government's aid materials were only distributed to self-reliant villages and self-help villages, increasing to 500 bags of cement, with an average of 654,300. After several years of construction, the actively participating villages have undergone obvious changes. Villages with a negative attitude, seeing great changes in neighboring villages, are stimulated by the government's advanced incentives and key support, and catch up. By 1978, most villages in China had become self-reliant or self-help villages.

The third is to implement the villagers' supervision system. In the new village movement, the government invested a lot of money and materials. How to ensure that these attributes are effectively applied to rural construction is a problem that the government considers more. Their solution is also simple. They adopt the method of "one shot at the end", all real estate is declared and levied by the village, and government departments do not participate in the project construction. The government appoints only one civil servant in each village to take charge of statistical work and accept the supervision of villagers. Whether the government can send the aid materials distributed by the central government to the village in time and accurately is an important symbol of assessing the quality of civil servants. The promotion and salary increase of civil servants are related to the performance and level of each civil servant in the new village work. In addition, villagers' representatives from each village can attend relevant decision-making meetings of county and local governments, meet with mayors and county heads, and ask questions, criticisms and suggestions face to face.

(2) Establish an efficient and unified new sports organization and management organization. In order to complete the policies, measures and financial assistance projects formulated by the central government and reduce the repeated intermediate links of wrangling and internal friction, the central government of South Korea merged or cancelled some institutions as needed and established corresponding organizations. The Central Committee has set up the "Central Agreement Council", which is directly under the Ministry of Internal Affairs, with the Minister of Internal Affairs as the speaker and the deputy ministers of the central ministries and commissions as members of parliament. Local governments at all levels have established corresponding local agreements according to the central model, thus establishing a systematic organization and working procedures from the central to the local. A development committee shall be established at the village level, consisting of 10- 12 people of insight, farmers' representatives and new village instructors, with village leaders or new village instructors as the keynote speakers, specifically responsible for the planning, coordination and implementation of the new village movement at the village level. According to the basic principles of the Central Committee, the Village Development Committee formulates specific development projects and implements operation plans, and then reports them to the Central Committee and the Municipal and County Committees step by step, and major issues are studied and solved by the Central Committee and the Central Committee.

(3) Formulate a strict management system for new rural sports construction. The Korean government is aware that without an effective management system, even if the best policies, measures and grand blueprints are formulated, they cannot be implemented from beginning to end and achieve the expected benefits. Therefore, after careful study, the Korean government has formulated a series of scientific management systems, which have made clear and detailed provisions on the management objects, contents, methods, information analysis, organization and feedback systems of governments at all levels. First, the management responsibility at the township level. Civil servants of the local government should investigate and study every day when they are stationed in the village, inspect and supervise the implementation of the new village movement, collect and sort out relevant data, and report to the district head. The district head collects and analyzes the relevant situation in time by establishing chart files, and reports relevant statistical data to the county head every day or week. The second is county-level (county-level) management responsibilities. The purpose and task of county-level management supervision is to find out the situation of rural grass-roots organizations in a timely manner, and to check and supervise whether the aid materials distributed by the central government are delivered to villages in a timely and accurate manner and used reasonably. The third is the management responsibilities at the provincial (provincial) and central levels. Timely support the actual situation of counties, districts and villages, formulate and adjust relevant policies and measures in time, and correct or popularize them. The vice governors of the provinces are responsible for collecting and analyzing the reports put forward by the county magistrate and the reports put forward by the relevant departments and bureaus after investigation and study, and are fully responsible for the concrete implementation and timely completion of the new village movement. The provincial (provincial) governments should collect relevant information and write reports in time, and report to the Minister of the Interior on a monthly or regular basis. The Minister of the Interior collects and analyzes the national situation and formulates or adjusts relevant policies in a timely manner. The Minister of the Interior entrusts university professors to be responsible for national inspection and supervision, and sends officials from relevant central ministries and commissions to inspect and supervise all counties according to the situation.

(4) Implementing the strategy of building rural economy and culture in an all-round way. In the early days of the New Village Movement, the government focused on tangible projects, such as improving rural roads, farmers' houses, implementing rural electrification, and reforming rural tap water. The implementation of these projects has changed the rural landscape, improved the living environment and quality of life in rural areas, and won the support and praise of villagers. With the in-depth development of the new village movement, the government has focused on promoting high-yield rice varieties, encouraging the development of animal husbandry, agricultural product processing industry and agricultural products industry with regional characteristics, developing diversified businesses, and actively promoting the development of rural insurance and finance. At the same time, in order to promote the construction and development of rural culture, rural cultural facilities such as villagers' halls, nursing homes, reading rooms, sports fields, entertainment places and youth activity centers have been built, and the villagers' diligence, self-help, cooperation and dedication have been stimulated through holding cultural activities and various trainings.

(5) Strengthen the education and guidance of the New Village Movement. Korean scholars believe that in order to correctly implement the government's intention for a long time and turn it into the conscious behavior of all citizens, it is necessary to strengthen the education of new villages and educate all citizens to establish a democratic citizenship consciousness of diligence, self-help, cooperation and self-improvement. 1972, the Korean government established the Academia Sinica, and 1990 was officially named "Academia Sinica of the Central Committee of the New Village Movement". In the early days of the new village movement, new village education paid more attention to cultivating backbones and farmers from all walks of life. For example, 24 training courses have been held, such as key farmers' training courses, new village instructors' classes, agricultural cooperative presidents' classes, agricultural cooperative management cadres' classes, female instructors' classes, land improvement group leaders' classes, aquatic products group cadres' classes and rural education backbone classes. The educational goal is achieved through three links: collective accommodation, centralized discussion and life education. The main contents of training include regional development, consciousness innovation, management innovation and youth education. Up to 1995, more than 342,000 people have received education and training in new villages at all levels. Academia Sinica has trained a large number of social backbones devoted to national economic development through the education of new villages, and made great contributions to promoting South Korea to join the ranks of developed and civilized countries in the world.

The Korean government also implemented the "volunteer instructor" system in the New Village Movement. Volunteer service refers to people who provide their knowledge, ability or efforts for the development of the whole region according to their own spontaneous actions outside their own work. Volunteer workers mainly come from university teachers and students. This activity is not compulsory, but students voluntarily sign up and apply for specific services after being recommended by the subject director. Since the New Village Movement, all the chairmen of the Central Committee of the New Village Movement have worked for free, and the 3 million instructors of the New Village Movement (sports backbones of grassroots units such as rural areas and cities) have also worked for free.

(VI) The great achievements made by the New Village Movement in Korea. During the period of 197 1- 1975, more than 65,000 bridges were built in rural areas of Korea, and roads with a width of 3.5 meters and a length of 2-4 kilometers were built in each village. By the end of 1970s, except for a few remote villages, all villages in China had been opened to traffic, which improved the life and production of rural residents. At the same time, by vigorously developing the characteristic agricultural products industry, implementing regional development, building agricultural products circulation and wholesale markets, promoting the development of rural financial industry and supporting farmers' cooperative organizations, the rural economy has developed rapidly and the income of rural residents has been increasing. 1993, the income of rural residents has reached 95.5% of that of urban residents. In rural areas, every 100 households have color TV 123.6%, refrigerator 105%, car 20.9%, gas stove 100.4%, telephone 99.9% and calculator 6.7%. The new village movement has played a great role in promoting the coordinated development of urban and rural areas and the balanced development of regions. South Korea's achievements and experience in developing the new village movement have been concerned and affirmed by relevant United Nations organizations, and have also attracted the attention of developing countries. 1more than 30 countries sent 12000 people to visit, learn and learn from their experiences.

[Edit this paragraph] Comparison of solving rural problems between China and South Korea

(A) differences in guiding ideology. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, how to ensure the stable and effective supply of agricultural products has always been the primary goal of our government in formulating agricultural policies. All policies and measures are aimed at ensuring the supply of agricultural products, especially grain, simplifying rural issues into agricultural issues and agricultural product supply issues, and rarely considering the actual needs of farmers who are the main producers of agricultural products. From the household contract responsibility system, the liberalization of agricultural products prices, the reform of the grain purchase and sale system, the reduction and exemption of agricultural taxes, and the implementation of the grain direct subsidy policy have all followed this policy idea. Single thinking makes our rural policy narrower and narrower, and the government's ability to regulate agricultural production is weaker and weaker. The successful practice of South Korea's New Village Movement shows that the key to solving agricultural problems is to solve farmers' problems. Only by implementing the comprehensive development and construction of rural education, health, culture and infrastructure can farmers live and work in peace and contentment, improve their quality of life, care about the welfare level they enjoy, and produce more and better agricultural products to meet social needs.

(B) differences in farmers' participation. The low participation of farmers is one of the main reasons for the unsatisfactory implementation of various policies to benefit farmers in China. There are three main reasons for the low participation of farmers: First, the low participation in policy formulation and implementation. The formulation and implementation of China's agricultural policies depend entirely on departments and experts. Farmers have been in a state of passive acceptance and have long developed the habit of dependence and indifference, so it is difficult for various policies to achieve the expected goals. Second, farmers are poorly organized and lack the carrier of policy commitment. After the implementation of the household contract responsibility system, the degree of organization of farmers has been weakening. After the reform of taxes and fees, farmers' decentralization has been accelerated, and there has been a management vacuum in rural areas, resulting in an embarrassing situation of "some people have nothing to do and others have nothing to do"; Third, the reform of rural political power lags behind. The township government's function orientation is wrong, it undertakes too many economic management functions, ignores the service function, strengthens the control over the countryside, and the non-governmental forces cannot develop.

South Korea's New Village Movement implemented various policies and promoted competition mechanism on a village-by-village basis, which truly made farmers the organizers, implementers and beneficiaries of the government's policy of benefiting farmers, and fundamentally stimulated farmers' enthusiasm for building their hometowns. Governments at all levels pay attention to coordination, management and supervision to ensure that all policies are put in place.

(3) differences in management systems. China's agricultural management system was born out of the management mode in the planned economy era. After the reform and development, although it has been repaired, the overall pattern has not changed much. The biggest drawbacks of China's agricultural management system are multi-head management, overlapping functions, lack of authoritative departments for unified and coordinated management, and the phenomenon of fragmented, mutual blockade and power struggle among departments is prominent. Policies and funds for supporting agriculture are organized and implemented by various departments, and departmental interests are hard to break. With the emergence of bureaucratic groups in agricultural management, the problems of repeated construction, blind investment and low efficiency of financial support for agriculture are prominent.

In order to overcome the above problems and break the boundaries between departments and industries, the Korean government set up the "agreement meeting" of the new village movement to coordinate the work of the national new village movement, which provided a reliable organizational guarantee for the orderly and efficient implementation of the new village movement.

[Edit this paragraph] Enlightenment to the construction of new countryside in China.

For a long time to come, the countryside will still be the place where most people live and produce, and their quality of life is directly related to the realization of an all-round well-off society. The Korean government has given us at least four beneficial inspirations in promoting the coordinated development of urban and rural areas, developing rural public utilities, developing modern agriculture and increasing farmers' income.

(A) let farmers become the main body of the new rural construction. Respect farmers' dominant position and wishes, let farmers speak for themselves, and stimulate farmers' self-confidence, determination, creativity and initiative in building a new socialist countryside. On this basis, the infinite wisdom and creativity of farmers will be reflected. Even if the government thinks that things are beneficial to farmers, it should first seek their wishes and never enforce them, so that farmers can become the main body of various rural construction undertakings. If we continue to emphasize the leading position of the government and follow the mandatory and mandatory working methods promoted by the administration in the past, the initiative and enthusiasm of farmers will be restrained, and the construction of new countryside without farmers' support will not succeed.

(2) Fully implement the policy of building a new countryside. Building a new socialist countryside proposed by the CPC Central Committee involves all aspects of farmers' lives, including rural economic construction, cultural construction and political and democratic construction, and requires all localities to comprehensively build and co-ordinate rural governance. It is necessary to further expand the coverage of public finance in rural areas and incorporate rural infrastructure construction, rural culture and education, and rural medical and health care into the unified planning and construction of the government. At present, we should start with small projects such as village reconstruction and rural roads, build a new countryside with clean village capacity and convenient life and production, change the dirty, chaotic and poor situation in rural areas, establish farmers' confidence in building their hometown, and then promote rural self-management; Excavate traditional cultural resources in rural areas, promote the formation of a new trend of positive, healthy and civilized, and establish a fine national tradition of thrift, mutual assistance and cooperation, and respect for the elderly and love for the young.

(3) Further promoting the reform of the rural management system. The rural management system can be divided into macro and micro levels, the micro level mainly refers to the rural governance structure, and the macro level refers to the rural management system at or above the county level. The focus of micro-reform is to promote villagers' autonomy and the reform of township institutions, vigorously promote the process of farmers' organization and realize township autonomy. It is the best choice for farmers to manage themselves, and it is also in line with the direction of "giving more and taking less" in rural reform. The government mainly implements rural governance through laws and regulations, and grassroots party organizations should implement the party's mass line, trust the masses, organize the masses, and rely on the masses to ensure the implementation of the party's principles and policies in rural areas. At the macro level, the rural management reform is first of all to merge functions, which will be implemented by a unified department after the agricultural management functions scattered in different departments are merged and concentrated; Secondly, it is necessary to decentralize management authority and change the present situation of excessive distribution of agricultural property rights at the county level, especially at or above the provincial level; Finally, it is necessary to change the "pour money" tower structure of personnel distribution in agriculture-related management, and let those technicians and managers with higher education go to the grassroots and rural areas to make contributions to the construction of new countryside.

Without changing the current rural management system and operation mechanism, the policies and funds for benefiting farmers will not really benefit farmers, and it is difficult for the central government to formulate a grand blueprint. The Korean government has had similar lessons in this regard. Before 1970, the Korean government invested 2 billion US dollars to promote the comprehensive development of agricultural areas. However, due to the imperfect system and mechanism of effective use of funds for investment, the investment benefit of funds is not great. Therefore, the Korean government had to start a comprehensive new village construction movement from 197 1, establish a unified "agreement meeting" organization in macro management, and give full play to the role of agricultural cooperatives in rural economic, cultural, educational and democratic management construction in micro-scale, and formulated the Agricultural Cooperatives Law in 1984, establishing agricultural cooperatives.

(D) to strengthen the publicity and implementation of the concept of new rural construction and education and training. Our party regards building a new countryside as an important historical task in the process of modernization in China, which shows that building a new socialist countryside will be a long-term rural policy implemented by our party. Do a good job in propaganda and mobilization, let the whole society care about and support the construction of a new socialist countryside, and mobilize urban volunteers and all sectors of society to participate in the construction of a new countryside. It is also necessary to strengthen the training of new rural construction, especially the education, training and guidance for farmers. It is necessary to make use of the existing educational resources and facilities, change the contents and methods that are not suitable for the construction of new countryside at present, and focus on strengthening the training of key farmers with public welfare spirit, mobilization and organization ability and openness. In the training, we should implement "production development, affluent life, civilized rural customs, clean village appearance and democratic management" ....