What are the modes of urban community governance in China?

China City Community Governance Model: Comparison and Analysis

Author: He Haibing Source: Zhuhai Chao, issue 1 2005

Governance is a new concept to study social relations, which emphasizes the management of public affairs through cooperation and consultation to make up for the deficiency or failure of the state and the market in the process of social resource allocation. Since China's reform and opening up, especially after the establishment of the socialist market economic system, the "unit person" has gradually changed into a "social person", and there have been free-flowing resources and space for free activities in the society. A number of social intermediary organizations and non-governmental organizations have emerged as the times require, resulting in the failure or invalidation of the original urban grass-roots social management systems-the unit system and the street life system. It is of great theoretical and practical significance to apply the theory of governance to the reconstruction of urban grass-roots society in China. This paper discusses the concept, connotation and characteristics of community governance, introduces three typical governance models in China's community construction, analyzes their similarities, characteristics, existing problems and difficulties, and puts forward the final direction and phased process objectives of community governance in China.

Since 1990s, the word "governance" has been widely used in political, economic and social fields all over the world. Its main purpose is to make up for the deficiency or failure of the state and the market in the process of social resource allocation. In the research report of the most authoritative Global Governance Committee, it is pointed out that governance is the sum of many ways in which various public or private individuals or institutions manage their affairs. This is a continuous process of coordinating conflicts or different interests and taking joint action. This includes both formal systems and rules that have the right to force people to obey, and various informal institutional arrangements that people agree or think are in line with their interests. It has four characteristics: governance is not a set of rules, nor an activity, but a process; The basis of governance process is not control, but coordination; Governance involves the public and private sectors; Governance is not a formal system, but a continuous interaction [1]. Coincidentally, China started the pace of community construction in the 1990s. The main background is that in the process of economic system transition, the government can no longer completely monopolize all resources by administrative power like the planned economic system, and a large number of freely flowing resources and free space have appeared in society [2], and individuals have been liberated from the unit system. The original system of streets and neighborhood committees, which mainly manages "social idlers", has many unsuitable symptoms in the face of new situations and problems. At the same time, some social intermediary organizations and non-governmental organizations gradually appeared in the community, and residents paid more and more attention to their own communities and began to participate in some community affairs. Applying the concept of "governance" to the process of community construction is of great theoretical and practical significance to the long-term development of our community.

First, the basic concept of community governance

Community refers to a certain number of residents who live in the same area. Community governance refers to the activities of the government, community autonomous organizations, non-profit non-governmental organizations, units under their jurisdiction and community residents to jointly manage community public affairs within a certain geographical scope and promote the sustainable development of the community. Compared with the past grass-roots social management in China, the characteristics of community governance are:

1, as far as the subject is concerned, it changes from simplification to diversification. In the past, in China's grass-roots social management, the main body of management was single, and it could only be the government. In community governance, subject diversification is an inevitable requirement. In addition to the main body of the state (government), there are residents, community autonomous organizations, non-profit non-governmental organizations and jurisdictional units. Therefore, the public affairs of the community need the participation and decision-making of multiple subjects, and the government and the community should form an active and effective relationship of cooperation and trust, aiming at good governance (that is, good governance is a social management process to maximize public interests) [3], so as to maximize public interests.

2. In the process, from emphasizing administrative control to emphasizing residents' participation. In the past, China's grass-roots social management, whether it was the unit system or the street life system, had outstanding administrative functions and strong command hierarchy. Between the government and units, between units and workers, there is an administrative command relationship of obedience and obedience. The interactive relationship among the city government, sub-district offices and neighborhood committees also operates in accordance with the administrative order mode. However, community governance emphasizes residents' participation, which requires that the planning of community development, the implementation of community construction and the handling of community affairs must reflect the extensive participation of community residents and adapt to their requirements. Residents are no longer attached to the unit or neighborhood organizations, let alone sheltered by them, but form an equal and mutually beneficial relationship with each other.

3. As far as the structure is concerned, it has changed from a vertical hierarchical structure to a horizontal network interaction structure. In the past, the institutional structure of street residence in China was from the superior government to the street office to the neighborhood Committee and then to the residents, and the institutional structure of the unit was from the superior unit to the subordinate unit and then to the residents. There is only a vertical relationship, not a horizontal relationship. In the community governance structure, the main body of the community is diversified, and the relationship between streets and neighborhood committees, residents and the government has changed from one-way operation to two-way interaction; The cultivation and development of a large number of community intermediary organizations is also a bridge between residents and the government, thus building the administrative power, autonomous power and social power in the community into a horizontal network structure [4].

Second, the practice mode of community governance

Since the mid-to-late 1990s, large and medium-sized cities in China have set off an upsurge of community construction. The Ministry of Civil Affairs first set up 26 "National Community Construction Experimental Zones" in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenyang, Wuhan and Qingdao. Through several years of practice and experience, several representative urban community governance models have been formed. This paper focuses on the main characteristics of Shanghai model, Shenyang model and Jianghan model.

1, Shanghai mode. In the process of implementing the "two-level government and three-level management" reform in Shanghai, the community is located in the street, and a street community management system combining the leadership system, the implementation system and the support system is constructed. Specifically:

(1) Community management leadership system: it consists of sub-district offices and urban management committees. Under the system of "two-level government and three-level management", the position of sub-district office as a first-level management has been clear. With the decentralization of power, sub-district offices have the following rights: the right to participate in part of urban planning, the right to manage at different levels, the right to coordinate comprehensively and the right to manage territorially. Sub-district offices have become the center of street administrative power, "blocks are the mainstay, and blocks are combined". At the same time, in order to effectively overcome the division, urban management committees led by sub-district offices and attended by police stations, housing management offices, environmental sanitation offices, industrial and commercial offices, street hospitals, housing management offices, city appearance monitoring teams and other units have been established. The Urban Management Committee holds regular meetings to discuss, coordinate and supervise various issues of urban management and community construction, and formulate community development plans. As the intermediary between the sections, the Urban Management Committee plays an important administrative coordination function, which makes the professional management and comprehensive management of the sections form an organic whole force.

(2) Community management implementation system: composed of four working committees. The Shanghai model has set up four committees in the street: municipal management Committee, community development Committee, comprehensive management Committee of social security, and financial and economic Committee. Its specific division of labor is: the Municipal Urban Management Committee is responsible for city appearance and sanitation, municipal construction, environmental protection, pest control, health and epidemic prevention, and urban greening. Community development committees are responsible for social security, community welfare, community service, community education, community culture, family planning, employment, food registration management and other work related to community development. The Committee for Comprehensive Management of Social Security is responsible for social security and judicial administration. The Financial and Economic Management Committee shall be responsible for the budget and final accounts of street finance, implement the administration of industry and commerce, prices and taxes on the street economy, and support and guide the street economy. Street-centered organizational innovation, including the establishment of committees by relevant departments and units, has given real support to the handling and coordination of daily affairs.

(3) Community management support system: composed of enterprises and institutions, social organizations, residents and their autonomous organizations within their jurisdiction. They are mainly responsible for deliberation, coordination, supervision and consultation through certain organizational forms, such as community committees, community affairs consultation meetings, coordination committees and residents committees, and provide effective support for community management. The Shanghai model also regards the residents' committee, a mass self-governing organization, as a "four-level network", pays special attention to the construction of cadres of neighborhood committees, gives full play to the role of neighborhood committees, promotes residents' participation in community management, maintains community security and stability, and ensures residents' living and working in peace and contentment. [5]

2. Shenyang model. From the second half of 1998, on the basis of the pilot projects in Heping District and Shenhe District, Shenyang began to carry out community system reform in the whole city, readjust the community scale, straighten out the compartmentalization relationship, build a new community management organization system and operation mechanism, and form a unique Shenyang model, which has had a wide influence throughout the country. The main measures taken are:

(1) Define community positioning. Shenyang defines the community as smaller than the street office and larger than the original neighborhood Committee. Due to the small scale and lack of resources of the original neighborhood Committee, it is not conducive to the function of the community to locate the community in the neighborhood Committee. Street offices are government agencies, and the establishment of communities at street level will affect community autonomy. Therefore, determining the community at the level between the street and the neighborhood Committee can avoid the disadvantages of the two aspects and is conducive to the utilization and function of community resources.

(2) Reasonable division of communities. In Shenyang, communities are mainly divided into four types: one is a "plate community" divided according to the natural area of residents' residence and units; The second is a "community community" with closed residential quarters as the unit; The third is the "unit community" with the concentrated area of employees' families as the main body; Fourthly, according to the different functional characteristics of the area, it is divided into high-tech development zones, financial and trade development zones, cultural streets and "functional communities" in the business district.

(3) Establish a new community organization system. This organizational system consists of decision-making, implementation, deliberation and leadership. The "decision-making layer" is a community member assembly, which is composed of representatives of community residents and community units, and regularly discusses and decides major issues in the community. The "executive layer" is a community (management) committee, which implements a set of teams and two brands with large-scale neighborhood committees, and is composed of recruiters, household registration police and the heads of property management companies.

, responsible for and reporting on the work of community members' congresses, and its functions are education, service, management and supervision. The "deliberation layer" is the community consultation deliberation Committee, which is composed of NPC deputies, CPPCC members, celebrities, residents' representatives and unit representatives in the community. It exercises the functions of consulting and deliberating on community affairs when the community congress is not in session, and has the right to supervise the work of the community management committee. "Leadership" is a community party organization, that is, according to the regulations of party constitution, the community party committee, general branch and branch are established.

The Shenyang model embodies the principle of "community autonomy and separation of deliberation and administration", conforms to the development direction of modern social democracy and is of great significance to the development of the community. [6]

3. Jianghan model. This refers to the experience of community system practice in Jianghan District, Wuhan. Based on the Shenyang model, Jianghan District repositioned the community as "smaller than the street, larger than the neighborhood committee". Through democratic consultation and election according to law, community self-governing organizations have been established, that is, community members' assembly, community neighborhood committee and community consultation meeting (unlike Shenyang model, Jianghan model does not regard community consultation meeting as a permanent institution of community members' assembly), which clearly puts forward the goal of community self-government, and the path to achieve this goal is to transform government functions and cultivate community self-government. Its main approach is:

(1) straighten out the relationship between community neighborhood committees, streets and government departments, clarify responsibilities, and ensure the autonomy of community neighborhood committees. It is clear that the relationship between neighborhood committees and sub-district offices is the relationship between guidance and help, service and supervision, not the relationship between administrative levels. Redefine the responsibilities of street administrative departments and community organizations, and streets are responsible for administrative management and undertake administrative tasks; Neighborhood committees are responsible for community autonomy, no longer sign a target responsibility form with the streets, and have the right to refuse unreasonable administrative apportionment. At the same time, it also establishes a community evaluation and assessment system for various functional departments of the street, and takes this as the main basis for rewards and punishments.

(2) The functional departments of the government are oriented to the community, and the focus of work moves down. District government departments should achieve "five to the community", that is, personnel allocation to the community, work tasks to the community, service commitment to the community, evaluation and supervision to the community, and work funds to the community.

(3) Rights follow responsibilities and expenses follow things. Including two situations: first, when the district government departments need the assistance of the community neighborhood committees to handle the work involving the interests of residents, they must also provide the community organizations with the rights and necessary funds for assistance with the approval of the relevant departments and the consent of the community organizations; Second, when the social service function that the district government departments can't do well or can't do well is transferred to the community, they must transfer their rights and work funds at the same time, so as to ensure that "who does things, who uses money, who is responsible and who has the right" and ensure that the community can "have jobs, rights and money" when assisting the work or undertaking social service functions.

(4) Responsibility goes to people and supervision goes to people. Mainly refers to the establishment of the implementation mechanism of "responsibility to people, commitment to people, supervision to people", to ensure that the functions of district and street government departments are transformed into place without going through the motions, and to eradicate the past chronic disease of "rushing to do good when in trouble and kicking the ball when in responsibility".

Through these measures, Jianghan District strives to establish a community governance model that combines administrative regulation and control mechanisms with community autonomy mechanisms, complements administrative functions and autonomy functions, integrates administrative resources with social resources, and interacts with government forces and social forces. [7]

Third, the comparative analysis of community governance

The above three models of community governance are typical experience summaries emerging in China's community construction. They have both the same characteristics and their own characteristics, but compared with the basic concepts of community governance, there are still many problems and shortcomings. To achieve the ideal goal of community governance, we still need to do a lot of basic work, and this process is long-term.

1, * * * same function

(1) The same historical background. As mentioned above, in the process of China's economic system transition, there have been complex and diverse changes in urban social management, such as "unit person" gradually changing into "social person"; The trend of urban aging is intensifying, and the elderly population is increasing; Immigrants flood into cities; At the same time, the development of multi-ownership economy has led to the emergence of a large number of new social organizations, such as individual economy, private economy, private non-enterprises and various social intermediary organizations. , forming a large number of social classes. These self-employed, private entrepreneurs, freelancers, etc. all belong to people who have no unit ownership from the beginning, and so on. In the face of these new situations and problems, the original urban grass-roots social management system in China-the unit system and the neighborhood Committee system have failed or failed one after another, and a new urban social management system that meets the requirements of the socialist market economy system is urgently needed. It is in this situation that all parts of China have launched community management campaigns to explore new community governance models.

(2) The system design is similar. In the design of community governance system, cities have made specific provisions on community positioning, organizational structure, division of powers and operational mechanisms. Although there are differences in details, they all follow the principles that are conducive to community building and democratic development at the grassroots level. Even the Shanghai model with a strong administrative color has established residents' congresses at the level of neighborhood committees, implemented direct elections in neighborhood committees, and established a system of "three meetings and one meeting", namely, community contradiction coordination meeting, hearing, deliberation meeting and residents' convention. These measures have expanded grass-roots democracy and are conducive to mass autonomy and community development.

(3) Convergence of dynamic mechanism. Theoretically speaking, community governance is driven by two forces. One is the community's own strength, and community residents, community autonomous organizations and non-governmental organizations participate in the governance of community affairs to realize the interest demand, which is the main force of community construction; The second is the external promotion of the government. The government uses its own resources and promotes community development with the participation of community residents. However, in the practice of community construction in China, institutional change is the result of government-led. The new community governance model is the product of the government's active promotion in the face of the new situation. Because government departments still hold a lot of resources, the construction of urban communities can not be separated from the guidance and support of the government, and community governance is mainly promoted by the external force of the government.

2, its own characteristics

The Shanghai model is characterized by combining community construction with the urban management system reform of "bipolar government, three-level management and four-level network", strengthening the power, position and role of sub-district offices, positioning communities in streets, forming "street communities", paying attention to the leading role of the government in community development, and emphasizing the development of community undertakings through street-residence linkage relying on administrative power. Therefore, Shanghai's community governance model belongs to the administrative-led type. Due to the vigorous promotion of the government, community construction in Shanghai has changed with each passing day in recent years, and community services, community environment, community culture and other aspects have made rapid development, and a number of civilized communities and civilized communities have emerged. Shanghai's experience has also been used for reference by Beijing, Tianjin, Nanjing and Hangzhou.

The biggest feature of Shenyang model is the construction of community organization system, which creatively constructs decision-making layer (community member assembly), executive layer (community Committee) and deliberation and supervision layer (community consultation and deliberation Committee) according to the setting of similar state power institutions, forming an interactive mechanism of "separation and mutual restriction". As far as the organizational structure is concerned, the Shenyang model belongs to the autonomous type, so it has a great influence in the whole country. In addition to other cities in Liaoning Province, Wuhan, Haikou, Xi, Harbin, Hefei and other places have also learned from Shenyang's experience. However, in the absence of external environment and internal conditions, a good system may not be well implemented, and the Shenyang model is prone to deviation in the actual operation process, that is, "wearing new shoes and taking the old road", which is exactly what many scholars and government officials are worried about.

Jianghan model is a new development based on Shenyang model. Its core feature is to actively change government functions and embody the concept of "small government, big society" in system innovation, which not only reconstructs the community micro-organization system and operation mechanism, but also changes the functions and administrative operation mechanism of district and street government departments, trying to establish a * * * mechanism between community autonomy system and government administrative system. Form a governance model that combines the government's conscious administration according to law, the independent management of community organizations and the voluntary participation of community people, and choose a gradual path in institutional change, that is, divide the community construction planning into three stages: the recent new community cultivation stage, the medium-term modern community development stage and the long-term community autonomy improvement stage. Jianghan model belongs to cooperative community governance model. At present, community construction in most cities in China is in a transitional period from administrative leadership to cooperative leadership [8].

3. Existing problems and difficulties

(1) The government is often offside, misplaced and absent, and still cannot handle the relationship between the government and the community. At present, the government plays a leading role in the community construction in China, and lacks an effective restriction mechanism. Coupled with traditional habits, the role of the government in community governance is not straightened out, which leads to the management of things that should not be managed, and the things that should be managed are not well managed or managed, resulting in offside, dislocation and absence. Some scholars have pointed out that the current Shenyang model still has the problems of "offside" and "absence" of the government, such as "replacing the society with politics"; Consciously or unconsciously regard civil society organizations as affiliated units or subordinate units of the government; Most grass-roots governments and their officials still don't know, are not used to or are not good at giving policy guidance to community self-governing organizations; The cultivation of social organizations in the third sector, such as civil society intermediary service institutions and specialized social work institutions, is still not in place [9]. In the Shanghai model, the tasks assigned by neighborhood offices in the past continue to be undertaken by neighborhood committees, and the situation of "a thousand lines above and a needle below" has not changed. The director of the neighborhood committee is a public institution. People from other communities are openly recruited to serve, and the administrative burden of the community is very heavy. Under Jianghan mode, government functional departments set up offices and personnel in communities, which directly encroached on the office space and financial space of communities.

(2) Residents' community participation is insufficient and their community awareness is not strong. Residents' community participation is the driving force of community development, but residents' participation in urban community construction is generally low all over the country, and the three typical community models introduced above are no exception. According to a large-scale survey conducted by the Social Investigation Center of Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences in June 2000, only 25% of the residents have desks.

Show "willingness to participate" or "willingness to participate frequently" in various activities or affairs in the community. Moreover, the distribution is uneven. From the age level, the main people who participate in community activities are the old and the young. "Old" refers to retirees and "young" refers to primary and secondary school students. According to statistics, nearly 70% of the participants in community activities are retirees, with primary and secondary school students accounting for about 10% and young people accounting for only 20%. And if there is no compulsory organization participation, the proportion of young people will be lower. From the perspective of income and education level, the higher the income and education level of residents, the lower the community participation rate [10]. Due to the short time of community construction, residents have not got rid of the influence of the unit system, and only regard the community as their own residence, without a strong sense of belonging and identity. The lack of community awareness leads to insufficient motivation support for community construction.

(3) Community autonomous organizations and intermediary organizations are weak, and it is difficult to integrate community public resources. At present, in the community, only government organizations and neighborhood committees are relatively mature. Because the government organization is too strong, the status of the mass self-government organization of the neighborhood Committee is vague. Neighborhood committees rely too much on street offices and other government organizations, and their autonomy function has not been realized, which can not truly reflect residents' subjective consciousness and participation consciousness, and it is difficult to win residents' recognition, and the public resources of the community can not be effectively integrated. Other social intermediary organizations in the community lack sufficient resources and authority, and do not have enough ability to organize residents to manage public affairs instead of government departments. None of the above three models reflects the importance of community intermediary organizations. The development of community intermediary organizations plays an important role in better meeting the needs of residents, fully exploring and utilizing community resources, and establishing community democratic autonomy.

4. Future direction and goals

(1) overall goal: although there are still many difficulties and problems in realizing community autonomy, it should be the ultimate direction of community construction in China, because the significance of community autonomy lies not only in the management of urban grassroots society, but also in its very important political function, which is related to the social foundation of the party, the grassroots source of government authority, the improvement of people's living standards and the realization of a well-off society in an all-round way. Of course, community autonomy needs the support of China's macro-political system. With the deepening of China's political system reform and the formation of the public sphere, the factors restricting community autonomy will gradually disappear. Therefore, the direction of community governance in the future is to transition to the autonomous mode.

(2) Process goal: It is more appropriate to choose a gradual way to realize community autonomy, and in this long-term process, we need to pay attention to several basic tasks.

First, further improve the community governance structure and straighten out the relationship among government, market and society in the community. At present, the system design of each community is strong in operability and weak in theory, and there is no clear legal basis for institutional setup, and the future development direction is also vague. Therefore, it is necessary to further reform and improve the management system of each community, so that the governance structure of the community will change from a single vertical structure to a network horizontal structure, and the three major sectors of the community, namely, government, market and society, will form a real cooperative and interactive relationship [1 1].

Second, enhance residents' sense of community and cultivate community autonomy. Community construction should constantly enhance residents' sense of community belonging and identity, expand the scope and degree of residents' participation, attach importance to the development of community functions, develop community services, shape community culture and meet the various needs of residents. Community neighborhood committees should gradually improve their own capabilities, represent the vital interests of residents, reduce their dependence on the administrative system, win the support and cooperation of residents, and promote the development of the community.

Third, vigorously develop intermediary organizations such as professional community service organizations. As a bridge connecting residents and government organizations, community intermediary organizations play an important role in integrating community resources, cohesive community strength, coordinating community contradictions and providing community services, and are one of the indispensable subjects of modern community development. At present, China's community intermediary organizations, especially professional community work organizations, are extremely scarce. Therefore, government departments should cultivate the development of community intermediary organizations through policy guidance and financial support, so that intermediary organizations can undertake the society stripped by the government, enterprises and institutions. I wonder if this answer can help you.