党的十八大报告明确提出:“优化行政层级和行政区划设置,有条件的地方可探索省直接管理县(市)改革。”作为一种顶层安排,报告并提“行政层级”、“行政区划设置”两个优化,从理论研究和探索实践两个层面来看,后者是前者的应有之义,并为前者提供保障与巩固措施。相比于十七大报告“减少行政层次”的论述,说明行政层级的优化探索将进 The report of the 18th National Congress of the Party made it clear that: “The administrative level and administrative divisions should be optimized to allow the provinces to explore directly the reform of the county (city) wherever possible.” As a top-level arrangement, From the two aspects of theoretical research and exploration practice, the latter is the proper meaning of the former and provides the guarantee and consolidation measures for the former. Compared with the report of the 17th CPC National Congress and the discussion of “reducing the administrative level”, it shows that the optimization at the administrative level will advance