Interest Groups And Their Governances In China's Transition Period

Interest groups in China have formed the survival strategies and the ways of development which have national conditions characteristics in the interaction of social groups, between groups and government in the transition period. Interest groups have become important strengths which effect system reform tendency and political stability in the key stage that reform has gradually focuses on political system. Actually, an era subject of how to cope with the imbalance of interest groups participating and how to make public policy reflect public interests' requirements that combines with multiple interests, becomes unable to avoid. To do a research of interest groups and their governance should base on the viewpoint of subject interactive of multiple interests and proceed in the relationship between state and society, government and social groups, as well as in social groups. Only in this way can we grasp the essential characteristic of China's transition society better. Therefore, this thesis is in macro view of state and society, studying on the methodology of individualism and gaming theory, analyzing the current survival situation of China's interest groups and development dilemma in China's system environment and at last standing on the reality of Government-oriented, exploring the governing and developing of interest group in China. It is aim at taking the relationship between state and society as a breakthrough point, constructing the system channel of positive interaction between state and society which can give full play in positive effects of interest groups.The appearance of interest groups with large numbers during reform and opening up in China, is the result of not only the changes of social inherent and the changes of Chinese Communist Party governing, but also products of the transition of relationship between state and society. According to the recognition differences whether China's social interest groups survives in a political environment which state and society separates each other like western countries, the first part of the thesis has analyzed the concept of interest groups, and based on this, selecting the points of the concept of interest groups. As there are full of arguments in the definition of the extension of interest groups in Chinese scholars, this thesis makes a distinction in the concepts between interest groups and social groups, interest groups and social organizations, interest groups and political parties. After that, according to the relationship between public power and society organizations in China's transition, this thesis places emphasis on analyzing and judging the patterns of the relationship between state and society in transition period. The social organizations in transition period are divided in four overlapping areas which are the national field, the market area, the public sphere and the private sector. Based on analyzing of the characteristics of the relationship between social organizations and public power, the thesis gets a conclusion in the mode of the relationship between state and society which is government-led. Finally, the thesis discusses the basic survival condition of China's interest groups under government-led model, indicting out that it is the appearance of self-conscious awakening in civil society in China.China's interest groups with self-conscious and demands producing in the transition of social development form of government-led, thus, survival analysis such as the types, characteristics, behaviors of interest groups in China, should be based on the relationship between interest groups with the government as the main criterion. Therefore, the second part of thesis devides interest groups into two categories, one is structural interest groups and the other is non-structural, according to the differences of the relationship between interest groups and public authority. Then it categorizes the characteristics of structual and non-structual interest groups, describing and comparing the inner structure, functions, activities of interest groups in China.The emergence of interest groups is caused by the diversification of interest demands and interest tension, but the actual survival and development of interest groups depend on its interaction with environment. In the government-led transition period, the interest groups face with many difficulities in survival and development. Among them, the most important is that interest groups in transition period face the concept obstacles and difficulties in system accommodation. For concept obstacles, there are four misunderstandings for public and government to regonize interest groups, which are impact of democratic quality, impact of social equity, policy decision and system direction, as well as the reduction of the level of benefit-sharing; for the system accommodation difficulties, interest groups in China face three levels of problems, which are the political system accommodation difficulties, the plight of institutional arrangements, as well as the conflicts in interest groups regulation.The governance of interest groups in China, that is, goverence of formation of interest groups in China and political participation. From the reform, the attitude of the state to interest groups has been changed from overall excluded into selective use and cultivation, but the basic principle remains prudent "use and limitations." Due to the immaturity of civil society, the goverence of government-led emphasizes on the pursuit of efficiency and even create self-interest to enable government departments, leading to an imbalance development and survive disorder in social interest groups. For this reason, this thesis presents three aspects of governance measures: 1) Change the ideas of government governance of interest groups. The concept of change includes foster the concept of government-led with public interest-oriented, the governance concept of balanced development of interest groups, and regulative principles of reasonable interest groups, as well as correct handling of the relationship between government-led and the public nature of government public. 2) Straightening out the relationship between social organization and Government. This includes straightening out the relationship among government, people and state-owned assets; the relationship between government and social organizations and the relationship between industry organizations. 3) Perfecting the existing system of interest representation and interests of integration, dredging institutionalized channels of state and society, which includes the perfection and innovation of democratization, strengthens the balancing and monitoring of people's congress system, party system, inner-party democracy system and petition system.At the basic framework of state and society, the problem of interest groups is ultimately one between citizen and the state power relations. Whether interest groups can play a positive role on political and social development depends on adopting what kind of interactive methods and institutional arrangements. The conclusion of the thesis is that explorating specific government-led model actively, establishing a benign system channels between state and society, guiding the autonomy and participation of interest groups actively, for the sake of exerting the positive effects of interest groups and promoting equalization and diversification of civil society development.