On November 15, commentary entitled Optimize Social Governance via Collaboration and Wide Participation by Li Youmei, First Vice President of Shanghai Academy, appeared on the comment page of People’s Daily. Below is the original text:
Social governance is closely related with people’s sense of experience, belonging, and gain for a happy life
Civic conventions and township rules & regulations work together, contributing to a better sense of well-being of the public; big data identifies online pirate goods selling gangs; tracing lost people via the internet has become an important channel to crack down on human trafficking. In recent years, social governance has shown a new trend of wide participation and collaboration from a variety of subjects. Now, China is standing at a new starting point of a new era. How to better cope with the challenge of complicated social governance issues? A key point is to get more participants involved in social governance and to make continuous efforts to improve the level of social governance, in terms of public participation, the rule of law, intelligence, and professional level.
The report to the 19th National Congress of the CPC stated that we should “establish a social governance model based on collaboration, participation, and common interests”. It depicts the bright prospect of modern social governance, and specifies the direction and mission of improving the modern social governance system. Compared to “build a social governance model based on participation and common interests”as stated in the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, the report to the 19th National Congress of the CPC added “collaboration”, which further enriches the implication of social governance. Under the background that socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era and the major social contradictions have undergone a historic transformation, social governance is in a better position to be based on collaboration, participation, and common interests. It is necessary for us to cast off the traditional thinking that Party committees and governments should take on all things. We should call on and encourage various social organizations and people from all walks of life to take an active part in social governance, and give a full play to social coordination and public participation.
To improve state governance ability and modernize social governance, it is a must to transform the government-dominated social governance model to the one featuring bilateral interaction and public participation. China is a country with a big population. To solve social problems, we cannot rely solely on administrators. There are some innovative practices of grassroots community governance for reference, such as the initiative of building a good neighborhood system in Yangpu District of Shanghai, the urban-rural integration community network governance system in Xihu District of Hangzhou, and “resident proposals” in Chaoyang District of Beijing. Many social governance talents and volunteers are found and fostered in these projects, and they together contribute to more wisdom for social governance that can help us better coordinate various social conflicts and strike a balance between different interest relations.
Complicated social issues should be considered from multiple perspectives; we must do our best to ensure every work is progressing fast and stably. The focus of social governance is to improve social governance in terms of the degree of public participation, the rule of law, intelligence, and professional level so that it is in a better position to cope with complicated system management problems. To resolve this issue, the key lies in “collaboration and participation”. Whether it is community administration, consultative democracy, environmental regulation, or city management, only by giving a greater role to enterprises, social organizations, and the general public in public affairs and social governance, by combining the functions of the Party and government with network expansion, better legal guarantee, new technology and professional system construction, can we create a more orderly and dynamic situation of social governance.
To form a social governance model based on collaboration, participation and common interests, social mentality is a new area that is extremely important. Without a sound and stable social foundation, the so-called “social governance model based on collaboration, participation, and common interests” would be just empty talk, as illusory as a castle in the air. The report to the 19th National Congress on the CPC puts forward “We will improve the system of public psychological services, and cultivate self-esteem, self-confidence, rationality, composure, and optimism among our people”, while laying stress on resolving social conflicts, establishing the concept of safe development, and speeding up the establishment of the crime prevention and control system. If we compare strengthening system construction to tamping foundation, maintaining good social mentality is the soul that is deeply rooted in social governance. Social governance involves social mentality, and we need to further improve our work in all aspects and work out a feasibility plan as soon as possible.
As a systematic project, social governance is closely related to people's sense of experience, belonging, and gain for a better life. To perfect social governance is actually the process of continually consolidating the micro-foundation for the CPC’s rule in China. By putting social governance at a higher strategic position, we will definitely gain more and better accomplishments in terms of social governance, which will then benefit all Chinese people more fairly.
