Impact of Village Governance Quality on the Satisfaction of Farmers’ Life Experiences

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This is informative, interesting and well-argued manuscript, with very analytical data analysis.

The only part missing is an explicit methodology employed. Is is comparative?

Is quantitative methodology?

 

1. What is the main question addressed by the research?

Impact of Village Governance Quality on the Satisfaction of Farmers' Life Experience

2. Do you consider the topic original or relevant in the field, and if so, why?
It is original, as little has been published in this field

3. What does it add to the subject area compared with other published material?
It adds evidence in terms of tables etc

4. What specific improvements could the authors consider regarding the methodology?
Expand the methodology by defining quantitative methodology, what particular aspects are used?

5. Are the conclusions consistent with the evidence and arguments presented and do they address the main question posed? (Yes)

6. Are the references appropriate? (Yes)

7. Please include any additional comments on the tables and figures. (No comments)

 

 

Author Response

Thank you for reading our manuscript and making valuable suggestions.

Regarding your question about " This is informative, interesting and well-argued manuscript, with very analytical data analysis. The only part missing is an explicit methodology employed. Is comparative? Is quantitative methodology?". Our answer is that this is a quantitative research paper. In the process of revising the paper, we also chose a suitable position for detailed explanation, so that readers can understand more clearly that this is a quantitative research.

Reviewer 2 Report

I recommend to publication.

Author Response

Thank you for reading our manuscript and choosing to recommend it for publication.

Reviewer 3 Report

Dear Authors,

Thank you for really interesting research. However I have a few suggestions to improve your paper.

1. Title of the paper. You use the notion of "governance" in your tittle and in your research as well, but you never described what is the governance. I truly believe that you misused this notion. Governance is the act or process of governing or overseeing the control and direction of country, region, organization or even village, but it refers to the rule of law and does not cover such aspect as existence of drinking water, etc. I suggest using "development" instead of "governance" and instead of "the development level of villages" to use "living and social conditions".

2. What is social quality theory? Could you elaborate this theory more?  I find that there is social quality measurement ir conditions but there is no such thing as social quality theory. Also, please elaborate the part "2. Theoretical Analysis and Research Hypotheses" more, e.g., why did you choose 4 aspects - village development level, village cohesion, village inclusiveness, and grassroots government empowerment level and not others? What scientific literature suggest and why? All choices of chosen aspects must be grounded.

3. What is life satisfaction? How it can be measured. You described only a few sentences on this core concept of your research, and I believe that more elaborated discussion is needed. 

4. What is non-agricultural farmers? As it sounds like an oxymoron a little bit, so please give at least a very short explanation.

5. Part 3.1. You need to give more details about survey. How data was collected (self-completion, face-to-face), who collected them (at least institution), what was the response rate, margin of error, etc.

6. What are the limitations of your research? I think it would be useful to present that in conclusions.

 

Author Response

1. Regarding your question about " Title of the paper. You use the notion of "governance" in your tittle and in your research as well, but you never described what is the governance. I truly believe that you misused this notion. Governance is the act or process of governing or overseeing the control and direction of country, region, organization or even village, but it refers to the rule of law and does not cover such aspect as existence of drinking water, etc. I suggest using "development" instead of "governance" and instead of "the development level of villages" to use "living and social conditions.". After our discussion, we think the proposal you put forward is valuable. We need to explain that China's rural society is moving from government management to a combination of government-led and farmers' autonomy. Rural infrastructure is provided by the state and rural public affairs are managed through consultation by farmers, so it is more appropriate to use "village governance quality". However, we think that the substitution of "living and social conditions "with "the development level of villages" proposed by you is very valuable, so we have revised it in the paper. The modified parts are highlighted in blue.
2. Regarding your question about " What is social quality theory? Could you elaborate this theory more? I find that there is social quality measurement ir conditions but there is no such thing as social quality theory. Also, please elaborate the part "2. Theoretical Analysis and Research Hypotheses" more, e.g., why did you choose 4 aspects - village development level, village cohesion, village inclusiveness, and grassroots government empowerment level and not others? What scientific literature suggest and why? All choices of chosen aspects must be grounded.". Our answer is "Social governance theory is a new social theory that has become popular in Europe in recent years. The idea is derived from a series of scientific and policy-oriented conferences held in Europe in the mid-1990s in response to the welfare crisis. The theory of social quality, guided by the basic value of advocating social harmony and social construction, reveals the goal and essence of social development. According to the social quality theory, socio-economic security, social cohesion, social inclusion, social empowerment, the four basic conditions together determine the opportunity for social relations to develop in the direction of social quality. This is also the basis for our study to measure village governance quality from four aspects: village development level, village cohesion, village inclusiveness and grassroots government empowerment.
3. Regarding your proposal about " What is life satisfaction? How it can be measured. You described only a few sentences on this core concept of your research, and I believe that more elaborated discussion is needed.". After discussion, we agreed that it is of great value. In the process of revising the paper, we also gave a detailed description of farmers' life experience satisfaction and a clear measurement method. The revised content is highlighted in blue.
4. Regarding your question about " What is non-agricultural farmers? As it sounds like an oxymoron a little bit, so please give at least a very short explanation.". Our answer is that non-agricultural farmers are people who rent out their land and work in non-agricultural production. After discussion, I think your proposal is very valuable. In the article, we will explain the non-agricultural farmers.
5. Regarding your proposal about "Part 3.1. You need to give more details about survey. How data was collected (self-completion, face-to-face), who collected them (at least institution), what was the response rate, margin of error, etc.". After our discussion, we agreed that it was very valuable. We revised it in the data source part of the paper. The revised content is highlighted in blue.
6. In the conclusion part of the study, we added the content of research limitations, marked in blue.

 

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

Thank you for revised and updated paper.