Abstract:

Counties are the oldest and most stable level in China's administrative regionalization system. However, in the process of China's rapid transformation from traditional society to modern society, the number of counties is shrinking on a large scale. It is of great significance to study the shrinkage of county organization system for exploring the way out of counties in the process of urbanization. In this study, nearest neighbor index and shrinkage coefficient were used to study the shrinkage of county organization system in China since the reform and opening up. The research shows that the shrinkage of counties in China is closely related to the historical process of reform and opening up, and has obvious stage characteristics. In terms of the contraction characteristics, the contraction of counties is significantly concentrated in coastal areas along the Yangtze River and cities above the sub-provincial level. Compared with the eastern region and cities above the sub-provincial level, the contraction of prefecture-level cities and counties in the central and western regions is obviously more difficult, and there are a large number of concentrated distribution of counties in some regions; On the shrinking path, the county shrinking experienced three waves of withdrawing county and setting up prefecture-level city, changing county to county-level city and changing county to municipal district, gradually advancing from coastal to inland. Due to the difference of development stage in each region, there appeared a complex situation of different shrinking types coexisting; In terms of contraction effect, county contraction has a significant positive effect on economic and social development. In terms of influencing factors, the cancellation of a county is greatly affected by the policy factors, including the change of regional development strategy, the implementation of the municipal county management system, the suspension of county to city approval, and the change of urban development policies. In addition to policy factors, the cancellation of a county is also significantly affected by its own factors, including high-level organizational structure, level of economic development, strengthening border governance, spatial location, unreasonable adjustment and callback, etc. The contraction of county organizational structure is the result of the combined action of policy factors and its own factors.

Key words: administrative divisions, county contraction, conversion from county to county-level city, conversion from county to municipal district, county

摘要：

县是中国行政区划体系中最悠久最稳定的一级，然而，在中国从传统社会向现代社会快速转型的过程中，县的数量却在大规模收缩，研究县收缩对于探索城市化进程中县的出路问题具有重要意义。本研究采用最邻近点指数和收缩效应系数等方法，对改革开放以来中国县收缩问题进行了研究，结果表明：中国的县收缩过程与改革开放的历史进程密切相关，存在明显的阶段性特征。在收缩特征上，县收缩向沿海沿江地区、副省级以上城市集聚的特征显著，与东部地区和副省级以上城市相比，中西部普通地级市县收缩的难度明显较大，部分区域存在着大量县集中分布的现象。在收缩路径上，县收缩经历了撤县设地级市、县改县级市和县改市辖区三次浪潮，由沿海向内陆渐次推进，由于各地区所处发展阶段的差异，出现了不同收缩类型并存的复杂状况；在收缩效应方面，县收缩对经济社会发展存在着显著的正面影响效应。在影响因素方面，县收缩是外部政策因素和内部自身因素共同作用的结果，一方面，县收缩受区域发展战略转变、城市发展政策变化、市管县体制推行、县改市审批暂停等政策性因素的影响较大；另一方面，县收缩受高级别建制、经济发展水平、空间区位特征、不合理调整回调等各县自身因素的影响也十分明显。

关键词: 行政区划, 县收缩, 撤县设市, 撤县设区, 县