乡村治理的公共领域不应是把国家与社会对立起来的领域，而是国家与社会都参与其中的领域。这意味着在乡村治理的公共领域中是各个层次的力量通过互动与合作而形成的解决公共问题的网络和空间，是各个层次的力量之间沟通协商的一种中介和机制。通过这种网络、空间、中介和机制，可以使政府、非政府组织、市场主体之间的合作更为顺利，行动更为协调。乡村治理并非只有政府一个主体，乡村自治组织，第三部门、私营部门以及各种公民运动的蓬勃发展，不同部门依靠自身的资源和优势解决共同关切的公共事务，相互依赖彼此形成合作伙伴关系，乡村治理是为了实现和增进公共利益，是政府和非政府组织等众多公共行动主体彼此合作、共同管理公共事务提供公共物品的过程。就政府部门而言，治理就是从统治到掌舵的变化；就非政府组织而言，治理就是从被动排斥到主动参与的变化。乡村治理是由政府部门、乡村自治组织，第三部门和私营部门等参与者组成的公共行动体系。在乡村治理中，多元化的公共治理主体相互依存的伙伴关系，推动了治理朝着网络化的方向发展，乡村治理是公共行动者建立伙伴关系进行合作的网络管理。在乡村治理的这种网状管理中，多中心的行动者通过制度化的合作机制，通过相互调适目标，共同解决冲突，以增进乡村共同利益。乡村治理的理想模式可以归为合作网络治理模式，乡村合作网络治理模式是指在一定地域范围内，政府组织与乡村自治组织、第三部门等通过一定的制度安排，采用一定的手段方式，合作管理乡村公共事务、提供公共产品，实现乡村公共利益的运行机制。

Rural governance is a public action system organized by the government departments, rural autonomous organizations, the third departments and the private departments. In the rural governance, the diversified public governing subjects form partnership in which they rely on each other, thus propelling the governance to develop in the networked direction. Therefore, rural governance is a network management in which the public doers establish partnership among them. In the networked management of rural governance, doers from different parties jointly settle disputes and contribute to the shared benefits of the rural area through systemized cooperation mechanism and mutual adjustment of goals. The ideal model for rural governance can be concluded as the cooperation-based network governance model. The model refers to an operation mechanism where government departments, village autonomous regions and the third parties work together to manage rural public affairs, provide public products and realize village public benefits in a certain area through certain systems and methods.