Self-governance will benefit all sides
http://www.huanqiu.com 来源：新华网 进入论坛 2007-11-09 08:24
BEIJING, Nov. 7 -- The references to promoting all-round economic, political, cultural and social development in the report delivered by General Secretary Hu Jintao at the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China last month were of profound significance.
The report concludes its comments on social development as follows: Social development is closely related to the people's well-being. More importance must therefore be attached to social development on the basis of pursuing economic growth to improve people's livelihoods, carry out social restructuring, expand public services, improve social management and promote equity and justice. We must do our best to ensure that all people exercise their rights to education, employment, housing, medicine and care in old age, so as to build a harmonious society.
To promote social development, governments at all levels should change their concepts as well as functions. As the report points out, we need to deepen institutional reforms to bring about effective connections and beneficial interaction between government administration and primary-level self-governance. We should also encourage social organizations to play an active role in expanding the participation by the public and reporting on their petitions to improve society's self-governance capabilities.
We are facing a series of thorny problems in building a healthy, market-based economic order. The government has taken efforts to enhance accountability and increase administrative efficiency. But without mobilizing the initiatives of the masses, the results will be limited.
To improve the situation, the government should shift from direct to indirect management; build up self-governance by fostering the practice in the market; explore a new long-term mechanism integrating the self-management of the market with adjustments by the government.
First, the government should safeguard the public interest while respecting citizens' individual interests and helping them to realize lawful individual gains.
To safeguard the public interest does not necessarily mean to ostracize individual interests. On the contrary, it is important to protect legal ways to pursue individual interests. For example, morning fairs and night markets can be set up in cities to bring convenience to people and also increase employment; miners should receive assistance in finding new jobs so that it is easier to shut down illegal small coal mines.
Second, it is necessary to help the public set up self-governance organizations. Rather than establishing government organizations to solve problems after they arise, it is better to establish self-governing organizations to prevent social contradictions. For example, disputes between property owners and property management companies are common nowadays. If the construction department can take the initiative in assisting property owners to set up their own committees and in supporting negotiations between property owners and management companies, property owners will not always have to turn to government departments when there are disagreements.
Third, a check and balance relationship should be built among self-governing organizations. Citizens build self-governing organizations to protect their own interests. However, it is conceivable that these organizations could occasionally harm the public interest. The best way to solve this problem is to foster mutual supervision and restriction among various self-governing organizations, with the government adjusting their relations to suit the public interest.
For example, the China branch of the International Ramen Manufactures Association pushed a dozen Chinese instant noodle brands to raise their prices in July. Such behavior occurred at a time when consumers' rights organizations are struggling to get on their feet. This is not a situation that can be controlled by administrative orders from the government. Consumer associations should participate in discussions involving price adjustments to form a check-and-balance relationship in the area of price setting.
Urban planning and regional environmental protection are another example. If local residents, experts and volunteers had participated in urban planning and environmental impact assessments from the very start of China's reform and opening up, there would not be so many problems in the fields of urban planning and environmental protection today.
Fourth, self-governing organizations should create their own rules upon their establishment to make them responsible social organizations. Having people pursue their interests through self-governing organizations could either promote or harm the public interest. Industrial associations may use the information they possess to seek profits for the industries under their care. So self-governing organizations should draw up their own restrictive regulations and publicize them for public supervision.
Fifth, the government should create conditions for self-governance.
The government should change its own approaches to fostering self-governance in the market and granting the public the self-governing rights and responsibilities. The government should be a limited and service-oriented body.
Weak self-governance is one of the major factors hindering China's institutional reform. Strong self-governance would create a basis for the government to change its functions and carry out further reforms. Also, the government's decision making will be more scientific and its authority improved.
The author is a professor with Renmin University of China
