Source: The People's Daily Page 5, July 9, 2017

Innovation in community governance is an important and difficult area in the innovation of social governance. For super-large open cities, innovation of community governance is an important practical problem that urgently requires addressing. In this respect, Shanghai's practice and exploration of leading innovation of community governance with Party building at the grassroots level is of certain enlightening significance.　

Since as early as the beginning of this century, Shanghai began the exploration of innovation of social governance, by promoting self-governance, co-governance, governance by morality, and governance by law, with Party building at the grassroots level. In 2015, based on previous explorations, Shanghai started the practice of innovation of community governance that is themed on "promoting regional Party building, and improving co-governance of the community". This innovation practice is based on the Party's good tradition of working for the people, and takes "uniting the Party members, uniting the people and uniting the society" as an important work direction. With leading by values, by talents, by specialty, and by projects as the main content, the practice attempts to promote establishment of a new landscape of community governance in super-large cities, that can adapt to the plural society and promote cross-field resource integration, so that community governance in Shanghai can gradually achieve "four transitions": namely, the transition from administration-dominated governance to plural co-governance; the transition from seeking partial reform to seeking overall optimization; the transition from stressing rigid indicators to the concern for people's sense of obtainment; and the transition from "promoting development by investment" to "making well-targeted efforts". Among them, the approaches with general significance mainly include the following three aspects.

The network system for party building shall be improved, so as to tackle the core problems that exist in innovation of community governance. Perfection of the system, integration of resources, and enhancing of capability, are the core problems that need to be addressed in innovation of community governance. How to establish an effective linkage mechanism between self-governance and co-governance in a newly emerging area that is difficult to be covered by a traditional governance network is a primary question that innovation of community governance faces. With strengthening the functions of sub-district Party working committees as the breakthrough point, Shanghai grants more administration and service functions to sub-district and community level. At the time of improving the efficiency of "the governments at two level and three-level administration", Shanghai establishes a new landscape of co-governance of communities under leadership of grassroots party organizations, and establishes a "three level linkage" working system that consists of district Party committees, sub-district Party working committees, and Party organizations of the residential neighborhood. In promoting collaboration and complementation of Party building, between sub-district and communities and entities domiciled in the sub-district, and promoting community Party organizations to expand their work to newly emerging areas, Shanghai improves the Party building network system by extending coverage of the Party organization and work. Based on the Party building network system, Shanghai establishes a grassroots governance structure in grassroots communities with the Party organizations at the core, the residential administration committees as the dominating entities, the residents as the main body, and the joint participation of all relevant parties, namely, the property owners' committees, property management companies, entities domiciled in the communities, mass organizations, social organizations, and mass activity groups. This not only promotes vertical linkage and horizontal collaboration, but also effectively solves the problem that there are blind areas in traditional governance network.

We shall lead mass work by Party building, holistically harness resources, and constantly improve governance level and grass roots governance capability. High power is stored in the Party's grassroots organizations. By promoting Party building with mass work, and well combining community Party building, Party building in entities domiciled in the communities, and Party building work in non-public ownership economic organizations and social organizations, we can give full play to the grassroots Party organizations' role in such aspects as guiding of values, organization and mobilization, support services, planning and coordination and uniting of backbone talents, to converge governance resources, coordinate governance activities, improve precise governance level and grass roots governance capability.　　

The Party must strive to draw outstanding backbone forces from companies, colleges and universities and communities, so as to form grass roots cadre teams and community Party secretary teams with outstanding working capability. Grass roots cadres are determining factors for the effect of innovation of community governance. Shanghai has been continuously making innovation in working approaches in such aspects as institution, status, remuneration, and future career development for community working personnel, so as to tackle the difficulty in selecting and retaining good talents for community work from the source. Those grassroots cadres and community Party branch secretaries come from the mass, know the mass well and have the capability and ardor to serve the mass, and they enjoy relatively high authority and good reputation among the mass, which lays a solid grass roots organization foundation for their effective conducting of community governance work.

Shanghai's practice of promoting innovation of community governance with Party building at grassroots level gives us the following enlightenments: 　

Innovation of community governance is not just simple maintaining of social order. One of its essential purposes is to root the Party leadership in the grass roots, and in the general people. Under the leadership of the Party, we shall organize the mass to manage social affairs at the grass roots level according to the law, and achieve the situation that the Party leads community governance, while relying on the mass to strengthen community governance. Shanghai’s practice shows, only when we have well established grass roots Party organizations, can we provide strong and powerful guarantee for strengthening and improving community governance.

The purpose of innovation of community governance is to better serve the people. And the fundamental objective of community governance is to get the common people live and work in peace and contentment, and to achieve harmony and stability of the society. Shanghai's practice shows that, in innovating the community governance system and means by implementing the people-centered development idea, we should not only let the common people get actual benefit, but should also respect the common people, and understand and respond to their expectation, and lead them to gradually make their longing for a happy life become a reality.　

Innovation of community governance must be forward looking and anticipate future social development, and continuously explore new mechanisms for ensuring stability and solidarity of communities. As a systematic project, community governance should not only seek innovation when ensuring practicality, but should make prediction for various risks and problems, so as to take precautions and preventive measures.

(The author is the First Deputy President of Shanghai Academy, President of the Chinese Sociological Association, and a professor of Shanghai University)