How does the Chinese Communist Party govern the country?

Chapter 48

The annual "two sessions" is a major event in China's political life. In March 2012, it was time for the "two sessions".As always, the Political and Cultural Department of the People's Daily and People's Daily Online launched the "Two Sessions Hot Spot Survey" as scheduled. "Social management" has become a new favorite, entering the top ten hot topics for the first time with 3 votes, ranking third, and becoming the focus of national attention.

The nationwide attention to social management issues stems from the people's real concerns about current social problems and social contradictions in China, and reflects the collective expectations for strengthening and innovating social management.

For more than 30 years, with a population of 13 billion, social reforms on an unprecedented scale in human history have led to complex and profound changes in Chinese society, and a series of new social problems and social contradictions have arisen as a result: social structures have changed, and the pattern of interests has continued to adjust , class and group conflicts are increasing; the urbanization process is accelerating, the social state is more active, and openness and mobility problems are increasing; "unit people" are changing to "social people", social demands are constantly increasing, and awareness of rights protection is increasing; a value vacuum appears in the transitional society , Social anomie leads to potential risks... In the face of these new social problems and social contradictions, the traditional social management methods of highly centralized power and government control of everything are becoming more and more inadequate. Strengthening and innovating social management has become a top priority.

The Communist Party of China and the Chinese government have keenly grasped the new issues raised by the society in the new era, faced the reality and responded positively. At the Fourth Plenary Session of the Sixteenth Central Committee in 2004, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China clearly proposed to "strengthen social construction and management, and promote social management system innovation."

As a result, social management has been included in the highest agenda of Chinese politics, and it runs through the work arrangements of the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government as a main thread. In 2007, the 2011th National Congress of the Communist Party of China emphasized "strengthening social management and improving the social management system"; in February 2, "social management and its innovation" was listed as the discussion theme of the provincial and ministerial-level main leading cadre seminars of the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Hu Jintao At the opening ceremony, the importance of strengthening and innovating social management was emphasized from the perspective of governing and rejuvenating the country; in March 2011, "Social Management Innovation" was written into the "Government Work Report" in an important space for the first time, and included in the national "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" Outline In July of the same year, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued opinions on strengthening and innovating social management, making a comprehensive deployment of social management innovation.Strengthening and innovating social management has become a major strategic task for China.

Philosophy determines the direction, understanding determines action.Innovating social management must first update management concepts. "Social management, in the final analysis, is the management and service of people." General Secretary Hu Jintao's speech hits the nail on the head. "Management is service. We want to turn the government into a service-oriented government, serving market entities, serving the society, and ultimately serving the people." Premier Wen Jiabao expressed the true meaning of social management in one sentence.

In September 2011, the 9-year-old "Central Social Security Comprehensive Management Committee" was renamed the "Central Social Management Comprehensive Management Committee", becoming the highest coordinating body for social management in China.The change of the word from "security" to "management" reflects the leap of the CCP's management concept: from top-down and administrative "governance" to "management" that puts people first and integrates services.

Modern social management is an interactive process dominated by government intervention and coordination, based on grassroots community self-government, mediated by non-profit social organizations, and mobilized for extensive public participation.Social organizations are the main body of social construction.After the reform and opening up, different types of non-governmental organizations have gradually emerged in many fields in China, and the government's understanding and attitude towards non-governmental organizations has undergone a process of continuous development and change. In 2004, the Fourth Plenary Session of the 2009th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China proposed for the first time to establish a new social management pattern of "leadership by the party committee, responsibility by the government, coordination among the society, and participation by the public." As a result, it has increasingly adopted an attitude of affirmation, support and encouragement towards various types of civil organizations, and has begun to actively cooperate with social organizations. In 2010, Shenzhen "incorporated social work services into government procurement"; in 300, Beijing Municipal Finance allocated hundreds of millions of dollars to purchase 3 public welfare service projects of social organizations, and each project received financial support ranging from 30 to [-] yuan ; Shanghai created the first social innovation incubator in China, and built a collaborative platform for the government, public welfare social organizations and social enterprises to deal with social problems, etc.From "distrust and anxiety" to "mutual cooperation", from "superficial participation" to "in-depth cooperation", social organizations, the main body of social construction that used to be embarrassed even to register, are realizing "mutual cooperation" in the vision of the government. Turn around", the concept of "social synergy" is gradually accepted by more and more people.

According to data from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, as of 2011, there were 44.8 legally registered social organizations across the country, including 2311 foundations of various types.These organizations are active in various fields such as education, health, environmental protection, poverty alleviation, disaster relief, etc., extensively participate in social management and services, and play an increasingly prominent role in economic and social development.

In addition to the "glorious turn" of civil organizations in the government's vision, in recent years, with the development of online media, the growth of civic awareness, and the increasing emphasis on online public opinion by those in power, "internet inquiries about politics" have become another aspect of China's public governance field. A beautiful scenery.

By the end of 2011, the number of Chinese netizens had exceeded 5 million, and the number of Weibo users had exceeded 3 million, which means that one out of every three people has intimate contact with the Internet, and one out of every five people has opened Weibo.For the vast number of netizens, the Internet has opened up a new field of expression, participation and interaction. Weibo has become a new way for the public to participate in social management, and "watching" has become a new fashion for grassroots netizens to participate in social management.Attention is power, and "watching" changes China.Through the "crowd watching" on Weibo, the awareness and effect of citizen participation are greatly improved.

For the government, the Internet has become an important platform for listening to people's voices and pooling people's wisdom, and online political consultation has increasingly become an important carrier for leaders at all levels to observe people's conditions and understand people's opinions. On June 2008, 6, General Secretary Hu Jintao went to the People's Daily Online Forum to communicate online with netizens and became "China's No. 20 Netizen". This shows how much the ruling party attaches importance to online public opinion.At present, China has carried out the pilot program of "online letters and visits" in 29 units in 100 provinces. In July 2008, People's Daily Online's "Local Leaders Message Board" was revised and launched, and it was opened for thousands of "top leaders" at all levels in 7 provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government except Taiwan, as well as the two special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao. Exclusive message board.

At present, 48 provincial party committee secretaries and governors have received public replies, and 18 provinces have ensured standardized and institutionalized handling of messages in the form of written documents. During the "Two Sessions" in 2012, more and more deputies to the National People's Congress, members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and major mainstream media realized the potential of the Internet for political consultation, and used Weibo to collect public opinion and discuss politics.

An essential requirement for innovative social management is to establish a government-led social management system premised on social self-management and extensive citizen participation.The "in-depth cooperation" between the government and social organizations, and the rapid development of "internet inquiries about politics" show that in China, a new social management pattern of "party committee leadership, government responsibility, social coordination, and public participation" is taking shape.

The focus of social management is at the grassroots level, the difficulties are at the grassroots level, and the bright spots are also at the grassroots level.In recent years, local party committees and governments at all levels and relevant functional departments have carried out various forms of exploration in the field of social management in accordance with the deployment of the central government. Implement effective management of the floating population of nearly 3000 million in the province. In January 2010, Guangdong Province ended the temporary residence permit system for floating population and began to implement the "one card pass" for residence permits, realizing the humanized management of equal treatment of floating population; Beijing Dongcheng District promotes social management grids, divides the whole district into 1 social management grids, integrates and configures the "seven forces" of grids (grid administrators, grid assistants, grid police officers, grid supervisors) members, grid party branch secretary, grid judicial workers, and grid firefighters), build a database of people, places, objects, events, emotions, organizations, etc. in the jurisdiction to realize social information management; Heilongjiang Daqing City established Established a "six mediation linkage" mechanism of "judicial mediation, administrative mediation, people's mediation, mass group mediation, industry association mediation, and intermediary organization mediation" to resolve social conflicts with multiple subjects and multiple means; Tianjin promotes openness of neighborhood committee affairs in community management , to give full play to the role of residents' congresses, community mediation meetings, and community affairs hearings, to allow residents to participate in community affairs extensively, and to realize the democratization of community management... These numerous cases are just the tip of the iceberg of innovation in social management by local governments in China , according to statistics from the Organizing Committee of the "China Local Government Innovation Award", from 559 to 2001, a total of more than 2010 cases of application materials were submitted to it, and there are undoubtedly more innovative practice cases.

From the Fourth Plenary Session of the 2011th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China proposed to construct a new pattern of social management, to the comprehensive acceleration of social management innovation in [-], and then many places have handed over their own social management innovation answers based on local realities. Innovative social management has become As the new protagonist of China's reform, China has embarked on a new journey of strengthening social construction and innovating social management.

(End of this chapter)