Cooperation Mechanism Of Horizontal Intergovernmental Relations In Urban Agglomerations: An Exploration On Interlocal Joint Meetings From 2006 To 2015 In China

In China, interlocal joint meetings have been widespread in the development of urban agglomerations. Joint meetings have created a new mechanism of coordination and cooperation in horizontal intergovernmental relations, which can effectively solve the dilemma of regional cooperation and governance. But at present, no reasonable positioning on the joint meeting has been formed in the academic circles, nor the exact understanding about the development situation and characteristics of interlocal joint meetings in urban agglomerations in China. Therefore, the information text and data of 584 joint meetings of Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region and Chengdu Economic Zone from 2006 to 2015 were chosen in this paper and the social network analysis tools and qualitative research methods were adopted to carry out qualitative description and quantitative analysis on interlocal joint meeting. Besides, this paper described the development and structure characteristics of interlocal joint meetings in four urban agglomerations in China, in order to reveal the existence value, development trends and characteristics of the joint meeting which is regarded as the coordination and cooperation mechanism of horizontal intergovernmental relations in the development of the urban agglomerations.