本文以廣西龍勝各族自治縣的經驗，來探索民族區域自治的意義。在沒有明确界定民族母體的自治地區，北京僅針對區域中的民族復雜狀態，作出因地制宜的政策或制度安排，就是給這個自治地區政策優惠，促進經濟發展而已。如此一來，龍勝號稱自治的三個少數民族－苗、瑤與侗，再加上兩個主要民族壯與漢之後，等于只剩下一個「政策族」，即是3+1+1=1的漢族自治。「各族」人民在自治的口號之下，既不能真正自治，又不能舍棄民族身分，則積極主動參與國家公共事務，或規劃個人生涯的能動性將大受折傷，這可能是龍勝干部與教師們凡事總是感到「沒有辦法」的深層因素。

　　　　　This paper critically examines the practice of multi-nation autonomy in longsheng, Guangxi. Interviewees show enormous frustration toward their own inability to do something about their life improvement. It is argued in this paper that the notion of multi-ethnic autonomy is an institutional constraint, locking local people into their own ethnic identities on the one hand, but keeping them from acting in the name of their people on the other. This is because each ethnic group is only a small component of the county and there is little incentive for any county officials to serve the multi-ethnic, which speaks nobody's nation indeed. Consequently, multi-ethnic autonomy is not different from Han autonomy, hence self-contradiction.