Abstract:Based on the survey data of 90 village-level questionnaires and 966 villagers’ questionnaires in Jiangsu,Anhui and Shaanxi provinces,this paper uses multi-level linear regression model (HLM) to analyze the impact of reducing the size of governance units on villagers’ participation in public affairs. The findings indicate that reducing the size of governance unit can significantly promote villagers’ participation in public affairs, which is confirmed after robustness tests. The mechanism analysis shows that reducing the size of governance units affects villagers’ participation in public affairs through three intermediary channels:improving village mobilization ability,promoting village information sharing,and enhancing villagers’ identity and belonging. Heterogeneity analyses find that in villages with weak collective economy and large population,reducing the size of governance units has a stronger role in promoting villagers’ participation. Moreover,reducing the size of the governance unit not only expands the breadth of villagers’ participation in public affairs,but also increases the depth of their participation in public affairs,which is mainly reflected in the significant strengthening of villagers’ influence on public decision-making and village affairs supervision. Therefore, suggestions are proposed to further promote the downward shift of governance units, optimize and adjust the governance structure of villages, and improve villagers’ participation.