A Social Governance Model Based on Collaboration, Participation, and Common Interests

A proposal for promoting participatory social governance was unveiled in March 2016 in the 13th Five-year Plan for Economic and Social Development. It emphasizes the participatory nature of social governance, rejecting the notion that governance is about the relationship between the governing elite and the governed. It provides guiding principles for modernizing China’s thinking on social governance and for implementing social governance initiatives.

The report to the 19th CPC National Congress highlighted the need to strengthen the institution building in social governance and improve the law-based social governance model under which Party committees exercise leadership, government assumes responsibility, non-governmental actors provide assistance, and the public get involved. We will strengthen public participation and rule of law in social governance, and make such governance smarter and more specialized.

We will improve mechanisms for preventing and defusing social tensions, and properly handle problems among the people. We will promote safe development, and raise public awareness that life matters most and that safety comes first; we will improve the public safety system and the responsibility system for workplace safety; we will take resolute measures to prevent serious and major accidents, and build up our capacity for disaster prevention, mitigation, and relief.

We will accelerate development of the crime prevention and control system, combat and punish in accordance with law all illegal and criminal activities such as pornography, gambling, drug abuse, gang violence, kidnapping, and fraud, and protect people’s personal rights, property rights, and right to dignity. We will improve the system of public psychological services, and cultivate self-esteem, self-confidence, rationality, composure, and optimism among the people. We will strengthen the system for community governance, shift the focus of social governance to the community level, leverage the role of social organizations, and see that government’s governance efforts on the one hand and society’s self-regulation and residents’ self-governance on the other reinforce each other.

共建共治共享的社會治理格局

2016年3月發布的《中華人民共和國國民經濟和社會發展第十三個五年規劃綱要》提出“構建全民共建共享的社會治理格局”，明確了社會治理不是簡單的管理與被管理的關系，而是共同參與的理念，這是探索實現中國社會治理現代化的指導思想和實踐路徑。中共十九大報告進一步提出“打造共建共治共享的社會治理格局”。明確打造共建共治共享的社會治理格局需要：加強社會治理制度建設，完善黨委領導、政府負責、社會協同、公眾參與、法治保障的社會治理體制，提高社會治理社會化、法治化、智能化、專業化水平；加強預防和化解社會矛盾機制建設，正確處理人民內部矛盾；樹立安全發展理念，弘揚生命至上、安全第一的思想，健全公共安全體系，完善安全生產責任制，堅決遏制重特大安全事故，提升防災減災救災能力；加快社會治安防控體系建設，依法打擊和懲治黃賭毒黑拐騙等違法犯罪活動，保護人民人身權、財產權、人格權；加強社會心理服務體系建設，培育自尊自信、理性平和、積極向上的社會心態；加強社區治理體系建設，推動社會治理重心向基層下移，發揮社會組織作用，實現政府治理和社會調節、居民自治良性互動。