How to solve the balance problem of ＂order and vitality＂ in the modernization of social governance in new China？

In his speech at the reception celebrating the 70th anniversary of the founding of People’s Republic of China (PRC), General Secretary of the Supreme Leader emphasized that "unity is iron, unity is steel, and unity is strength. Unity is an important guarantee for the people of Chinese and the Chinese nation to overcome all the risk challenges on the road ahead and constantly move from victory to new victory. " This important exposition shows the significance of rallying various forces and reaching social consensus on the road of China’s reform and development, and also points out the institutional logic of China’s social governance modernization practice innovation with coordinating social interest structure and building social order as its core content. As an integral part of state governance, social governance, whether it is a single subject or a multi-subject relationship pattern, will face the balance of "order and vitality", and its modernization process is a reform and innovation process in which the party and the state unite and unite people to the maximum extent in different times, realize new social integration in social differentiation, and rebuild social identity in the new journey.

The starting point of China’s social governance modernization system practice

At the beginning of the founding of New China, according to the needs of political power construction, economic foundation and social order construction, the Party and the state quickly established a highly centralized planned economy system and an all-round national governance system, and established a set of social management systems in a short period of time, including unit system, people’s commune system and household registration system. This management system has realized the active mobilization and balanced allocation of the resources of the whole society under the relatively closed conditions and the relative shortage of resources. More importantly, due to the high matching between management system, distribution principle and cultural identity, social life is effectively brought into the framework and track of the system, which not only organizes social life peacefully and orderly, but also forms stable expectations and overall social identity. However, this institutional arrangement is considered to restrict the growth of social autonomy, lead to new problems such as insufficient social vitality, and become an important endogenous factor that leads to subsequent reforms. It can be said that this is also the starting point of China’s social governance modernization system practice.

In 1978, the reform and opening-up started the process of China’s socialist market economy construction, which provided new institutional support for the liberation and development of social productive forces. A large number of "unit people" quickly poured into "communities" and became "social people", and social vitality was continuously released. The rapid changes in the social field have surpassed the original social management system. Due to the lack of coping experience, since the middle and late 1990s, China has accelerated the pace of globalization in the economic field, and gdp doctrine and market logic have gradually spread to the social field. Especially under the influence of "negative externalities" such as the laid-off workers of state-owned enterprises and the market-oriented reforms in public services such as housing, medical care and education, the balance of social "order and vitality" in China has become more complicated during this period, and the relationship between the economic system and other social systems has become uncoordinated, leading to problems.

Construct a new pattern of social governance of "co-construction, co-governance and sharing"

In 2004, the Fourth Plenary Session of the Sixteenth CPC Central Committee emphasized the importance of social management from the perspective of strengthening the party’s ruling ability and building a harmonious socialist society, and proposed for the first time to establish and improve the "social management pattern of party committee leadership, government responsibility, social coordination and public participation". The report of the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed to build a new social management pattern of "Party committee leadership, government responsibility, social coordination and public participation". Build a more sound social management system. Therefore, the state focuses on safeguarding and improving people’s livelihood, promotes the comprehensive reform of social governance concepts, models and mechanisms, provides public products to the public with a series of more elaborate system designs and mechanism designs, and realizes new social solidarity on the basis of continuously improving the level of public services and basic security. At the same time, in view of the diversification of public demand and the complexity of social interest coordination, the state further emphasizes "stimulating social vitality" and promotes social organizations and social forces to participate in public services and social governance. It can be said that in the practice of the transformation of the national governance system during this period, the community social governance model focusing on ensuring people’s livelihood has been fully developed. On the whole, however, due to the weak ability of social participation, the construction of multi-party co-governance system is still facing endogenous problems. As a result, the government-led single-subject governance model consumes more and more social costs, while the public spirit and public space are always weak.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, especially since the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China has entered a new journey of all-round social development in the new era. Based on the transformation of major social contradictions in our country, the Party and the state have proposed to strengthen the innovation of social governance system and build a new pattern of social governance of "co-construction, co-governance and sharing". Specific to grassroots communities, it is to improve public services, promote the quality of development, and guide the public and different social groups to enter the social public sphere; Explore new ways to solve public problems in a harmonious and orderly way through active consultation and democracy. On the basis of constantly improving the "publicity" level of China society, this series of institutional practices promote the continuous improvement of the social governance system of "Party Committee leadership, government responsibility, social coordination, public participation and legal protection". The modernization of social governance has become an important topic in the modernization of state governance in the new era, which is reflected in many aspects such as improving the level of socialization, rule of law, intelligence and specialization of social governance. The reform in this period is not only devoted to providing higher-level public goods, but also trying to realize the benign interaction between government governance, social regulation and residents’ autonomy, and promote social unity based on social positive mentality at a higher level. Focusing on the long-term goal of China’s reform, the development and innovation of the current social governance model has important strategic significance for cultivating the social soil for sustainable economic and social development in the new era, and provides an important basis for the subsequent institutional practice.

Enlightenment from the Modernization of Social Governance in New China

70 years has gone by in a flash, but for the people of China and the Chinese nation, it has been 70 years of great changes and changes. Looking back on the historical process of the modernization of social governance in New China, we can get some important theoretical enlightenment of regularity, namely:

1. Always adhere to the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), strengthen party building throughout all aspects and the whole process of social governance innovation, unite and condense the forces of all parties, promote the construction of social publicity in China, and realize "co-construction, co-governance and sharing";

2. Always adhere to the people’s dominant position, explore a new model of social integration with multi-participation on the basis of respecting the autonomy of social members, and realize a new social governance pattern with benign interdependence between vitality and order.;

3. Always adhere to the rule of law, adjust the multi-interest structure of modern society with the rule of law thinking and methods, realize deep and effective social unity and resolve social contradictions..

From the perspective of the theoretical discourse construction of social sciences in contemporary China, the above enlightenment not only has important policy significance for further deepening the reform of social governance system in the future, but also points out the important direction for the current theoretical circles to deepen their research and further develop their theoretical discourse.

The upcoming Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee will study some major issues of upholding and improving the Socialism with Chinese characteristics system and promoting the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity. It can be predicted that this will strongly promote the modernization of social governance in China and take a more solid and confident step.

(The writer is president and professor of China Sociological Society.This article is the author’s speech at the theoretical seminar celebrating the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China. )

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(This article only represents the author’s personal views. Column email: shhgcsxh@163.com)