In the transformation of reform, development and stability of China, owing to social structures, economical systems, governmental institutions and cultural values, there are some incidents and phenomena of social disharmony in reality. It must find out the ways of social stability and harmony. Therefore, this paper, on the basis of foreign subaltern studies, contentious politics studies and social contention facts, generalizes many native definitions related to social harmony as social contention, and posits that the study of social contention in China in the fields of political science, sociology and law at home lies into the study of nature, motives and governance as follows:the nature study includes definitions, structure and functions of social contention; the motive study includes generating reasons and motivating dynamics of social contention; the governance study includes the governing ideas, subjects and dynamics of social contention. Further speaking, the study of nature and motives finally aims to govern the social contention. So, the paper focuses on the governance of social contention in China, then on the theoretical grounds of contentious politics and political party politics, discusses the governance of social contention from the perspectives of relationship between governance structure of social contention and power structure (that is state, political party and society). It includes such sub-questions:why the governance structure of social contention is critical to governance of social contention and why does the governance structure depend upon the power structure? Why the contemporary governance structure of social contention in China is the structure of state domination and society participation? Why the political party, that is Communist Party of China (CCP), is or should be the centre of governance structure of social contention in China? The three questions go forward logically one by one, and the third sub-question is the key one which is the relationship between the party and governance of social contention.The paper starts from general, especially western theories, analyzes how the nature and motives of social contention in the theory of contentious politics affect the social contention governance, and posits the relations among social contention governance, governance structure of social contention and power structure which are the starting point or hypothesis of the whole paper, that is the governance structure of social contention determines the effects of social contention governance (such as the frequency, intensity and affection of social contention) and the governance structure of social contention depends upon the power structure. Then, it comes to the social contention and its governance in China by means of the above viewpoints and hypothesis. In the power structure of Chinese state and society, on the one hand social contention governance is a society’s behavior resulting from the social contention’s reasons of interest subjects and social structure, its positive and negative functions on interest subjects and society; on the other hand, social contention governance is a state’s behavior resulting from the social contention’s reasons of state (government) and its positive and negative functions on state. More importantly, the relationship between state an society in China is the structure and reality of state-led social pluralism, so this kind of power structure decides that the governance structure of social contention is state domination and society participation, which shows lawful and institutional governance of social contention in practice.The key to this paper is the study of inner relationship between the political party, social contention and its governance by means of structure and function. With the interaction between political party study and political science, it emphasizes that power structure in China must transform from the two dimension of state and society to the three dimensions of political party, state and society, which is based on the power organization network of political party and deep affects the political party itself and the Chinese politics. Both in the general logic of modern politics (especially in developing countries) and the special logic of Chinese politics, governance of social contention is a behavior of the political party. Because the political party is the centre of Chinese power structure, based on the above-mentioned hypothesis that power structure decides the governance structure, the political party has to be the centre of the governance structure of Chinese social contention. This is the result from the static analysis of Chinese power structure. Moreover, by dynamic analysis of Chinese power structure, the political party gradually departs from the state and embeds into the society after the transformation of power structure, which makes the political party have the structural conditions for the center of governance structure. It is evident from the combination of state and political party, the normal governance after the political party imbedded into the society to explore the dynamic structural conditions that the political can and should be the centre of social contention governance. Meanwhile, functionally, the political party is absent from the governance of Chinese social contention, that is the political party’s function on social contention governance doesn’t exert fully both in theory and in practice. However, political party’s function that integrates the conflict and friction between society and state, between society and society, to some extent, is its social integration function which is necessary to political party’s governance on social contention and is inevitable content of political party’s integration strength. So the political party has to transform from the absence of actor to return of the actor by way of values change, organizations operation and institutions integration in order to realize its governance on social contention, exert its integrating strength, and finally fulfill its ability as the governance center.To sum up, on the actual basis of social contention and its gvernance, by above theoretical building and practical proving, it can conclude that the social contention governance must center on the political party, which is caused by the political party’s structure and functions in the Chinese power structure among political party, state and society. Such political logic of political party as the center of social contention governance has special definitions and meanings, which emphasizes the governance centre of political party on the basis of state’s and society’s governance on social contention at aims to good governance on social contention. In addition, such kind of social contention governance as irregular form is coherent with normal social governance which is the distinct display of power structure with the center of political party among political party, state and society, and is favorable for realizing the leading and ruling status of the political party, prosperity and development of the state, long peace and sustainable stability of the society, happiness and welfare of the people. |