行政审批制度改革是全面深化改革的“当头炮”。然而，由于行政审批制度改革“缺乏上级考核，改革可能产生法律风险与政治风险、缺乏上级政策配套”，基于“有限资源与海量任务”的政府不倾向主动改革。政府级别越低，越不倾向推动改革。这是行政审批制度改革的困境。本研究观察到了一个特例，即“越县”在国家“放管服”大潮之前自发完成了县级政府能够推动的行政审批制度改革。作为行政体制最低一级完整结构的县级政府，为何越县能完成多数县级政府难以完成的行政审批制度改革？为回应该问题，本研究梳理了三部分文献：行政审批制度改革的相关文献、“如何理解改革”的相关文献以及政府行为研究的相关文献。行政审批制度改革的相关文献贡献了大量的真知灼见，但既有的研究往往是规范性地讨论政府“应该”做什么，或是对既有实践经验的总结，或以统计检验展现改革中某种创新的扩散，鲜有解释行政审批制度改革变迁；“如何理解改革”的相关文献提供了启发性思路，但相关解释只能符合越县行政审批制度改革的某些片段，难以解释整个改革过程；政府行为相关研究展现了政府行为的“理性”一面，即在有限资源的条件下侧重于完成某些“重点”任务。持续推动行政审批制度改革不属于政府的“理性”行为。为此，本研究基于在越县接近两年的田野调查获取一手质性资料回答该问题。研究发现：越县行政审批制度改革是权力整合的产物——作为改革官僚机构的行政服务中心与县域领导者通过不同权力整合方式达成各自目标的产物。具体而言：（1）行政服务中心是县域行政审批制度改革的主体，其推动改革基于“挣脱边缘化”的生存逻辑；（2）县域领导者基于晋升逻辑对于改革“选择性支持”，几次支持并非县域领导者有意推动，但支持却产生关键作用；（3）县域行政审批制度改革在不同时期存在不同权力整合方式，行政性整合、统筹性整合、关系性整合、制度性整合、补偿性整合成为推动改革的重要机制。研究的创新之处：（1）在研究视角上，拓展了既有行政审批制度改革的研究范式，提供了县级政府多主体互动机制的微观视角；（2）在理论贡献上，本研究提供了一个不同于“行政审批制度改革是‘自上而下’贯彻”以及“行政审批制度改革是地方政府主动设计”的新解释，并展现了推动县域行政审批制度改革的机制，以及该机制演变的逻辑；（3）在研究数据上，本研究获取了详细的一手材料，弥补了既有行政审批改革研究实证案例较少的问题。

The administrative licensing system (ALS) reform is the "spearhead" of the comprehensively deepening reform. However, due to the absence of performance appraisal, the potential legal and political risks, and the lack of superior support, local governments with limited resources and massive tasks is not inclined to proactively propel the reform. This is particularly true for the lower level governments, indicating the difficulty in promoting the ALS reform. This study focusses on a puzzling case of Yue county in which the ALS reform was voluntarily completed before the national reform of government functions. Why did Yue county, as a low-level government in the administrative system, complete the ALS reform on its own initiative?This study combs three parts of literature: literature on the ALS reform, how to understand the reform, and government behavior. The research on the ALS reform has contributed a lot of insights, but the existing research often discusses what the government "should" do, or summarizes the existing practical experience, or shows the diffusion of some innovation in the reform by statistical test, and rarely explains the change of the reform of the ALS reform; the research on "how to understand the reform" provides enlightening ideas, but the relevant explanation can only fit some segments of the ALS reform in Yue county, and it is difficult to explain the whole reform process; the research on government behavior shows the "rational" side of government behavior, it focuses on completing some "key" tasks under the condition of limited resources. Government is not inclined to push the ALS reform. Therefore, this study explains the puzzle based on the first-hand qualitative data obtained from nearly two years of fieldwork in Yue county.This study finds that the ALS reform in Yue county is the product of power integration. It is a result of a process wherein the administrative service center and local political leaders manage to achieve their own goals through different ways of power integrations. To be more specific: (1) the administrative service center plays the key role in the county ALS reform, and its reform is based on the survival logic of "breaking away from marginalization"; (2) local political leaders' selective support for the ALS reform is based on the political logic of promotion. While the support was occasional and unintended, it played a pivotal role in the reform; (3) the ALS reform in different periods showed different ways of power integrations. Administrative integration, overall integration, relational integration, institutional integration, and compensatory integration have become crucial mechanisms that promoted the reform.The contributions of this research is as follows: (1) it extends the exiting paradigm is studying ALS reform by providing a micro-level perspective of how the interactions among county-level actors shape the reform; (2) it offers a new explanation for the emerging and evolving of the ALS reform, which are different from the traditional theories of “top-down implementation” or “local design”; (3) it obtains detailed and solid first-hand data and complements the existing literature by offering one of the first empirical research.