Political Connections and Poverty Alleviation Project Aiming

Hu Lian, Wang Huanming, Wang Yan, Wang Sangui

Journal of Finance and Economics Vol. 43, Issue 09, pp. 21 - 32 (2017)  DOI:10.16538/j.cnki.jfe.2017.09.002

Abstract

How poverty alleviation projects aim at poor peasant households accurately is not only the focus of anti-poverty theory, but also a worldwide problem.This paper deeply analyzes the problem from a perspective of political connections.Through a survey of 30 mutual funding fund pilots in five provinces, it arrives at the conclusions as follows:firstly, political connections have significantly positive effects on farmers' participation in poverty alleviation projects; secondly, imperfect village governance is the important reason for the effect of political connections on poverty alleviation project aiming; thirdly, external reasons for the effect of political connections on poverty alleviation project aiming are too large government-led poverty alleviation projects and a too small role of public welfare organizations in poverty alleviation. Therefore, the perfection of village governance, an encouragement to the role of public welfare organizations in poverty alleviation, and the reduction in the effect of political connections on poverty alleviation project aiming are the important measures of realizing targeted poverty alleviation. This paper reveals the contradiction between imperfect village governance and poverty alleviation project aiming, and analyzes the importance of the role of public welfare organizations in the field of poverty alleviation from a perspective of political connections.The conclusions have great significance to improve poor governance and targeted poverty alleviation mechanism in China.

Keywords

poverty alleviation project; political connection; aiming deviation; village governance; public welfare organization