On The Socialization Of Public Services In Contemporary China

According to the Marxism,the state has twofold nature,one is class nature,the other one is public character.The state must perform its public function so that it can guarantee the stability of its political rule.In other words,only when the state provides public services which is needed for development of society,the state power can possess its legitimacy foundation.For this reason,public services are the origin of growth of the state power,and are the value of state power.But,the state provides public services to the society which is not eternal subject during human society's development,the state theory of Marxism indicates that the state will go forward withering away necessarily.During the process of withering away of the state,the power of state which is from the society for providing public services will go back to the society gradually.The people's democracy of the Marxism also indicates that the power of state going back to the society is registered as the enforcement of people's democracy,and the citizen participation is the necessary means for the enforcement of people's democracy.On that basis,if we survey the socialization of public services newly,we will find that the socialization of public services actually is the presentation of state power going back to the society.Because forming an association is the basic way to broaden citizen participation,and NGO is the indispensable cartier of socialization of public services.In reality,the content of public services is very abroad,irrigation service is one of those.After 1980s,the reforms of irrigation management in many countries all set their goal for Participatory Irrigation Management. Because from the content of PIM,it brings about the socialization of organizations,socialization of operation and maintenance,socialization of resource input,the socialization of evaluate and accountability.So,PIM is the embodiment of socialization of public services in the irrigation service.The time of the other countries and Taiwan Region carried out PIM is earlier than us.So,we can draw lessens from the other countries and Taiwan Region about PIM.Around the world,both developed countries and developing countries have carried out PIM.The contemporary PIM first appeared in the developed countries,for example USA and Japan.After 1970s,because of the economic crisis,many developing countries have to cutting down the input to state-owned irrigation districts.This is the common context of PIM in many developing countries in last 30 years.Of cause, the World Bank also plays an important role in progressing PIM of many developing countries.Under the request from World Bank,many developing countries include Mexico,Turkey,Colombia, Philippines and so on began to carry out PIM.For China,the time of Taiwan Region carried out PIM is also earlier than Mainland China Area.Irrigation association is the main form in Taiwan Region.In the Mainland China Area,PIM was continued from the preceding irrigation management.If we want to understand why PIM could appear in our country,we must find out the history of irrigation management in China.According to historical information,there are irrigation self-management in the feudal age.Tongji Weir in Zhejiang,Tongli Channel in Shanxi and Dujiang Weir in Sichuan all are emblematical delegates of irrigation self-management in the feudal age. During the republican period,the irrigation management in our country continued the tradition of self-management in the feudal age.Although during this period the state had begun to consolidate the water administration,the state tried to take the irrigation self-management under its control through legalization,but the state failed.After 1949,the old irrigation groups were cleared by the government. As the substitute,many kinds of farmer cooperative economic organization which is created by the state were set up.Of course,these farmer cooperative economic organizations did not keep its nongovernmental character any more,especially the peoples commune was "political and social unity".This character endowed the peoples commune to manage irrigation under the control of state, water users din not have ability to participate irrigation management by self-determination.So,the basic character of the irrigation management in China was nationalization after 1949.After reform and opening-up,the construction of market economy became the core of socialist reform.For enhancing the energy in development of drainage and reclamation,market mechanism was introduced into irrigation management,this was known as Reform of property rights system of small hydraulic in countryside.During this reform,the right of management is contracted out.From the view of public management,this essence of property rights system reform is the privatization of public services.So, the character of irrigation management in our country had begun to change from nationalization to privatization.From 1994,the theory of PIM began to carry out pilot project with the help from the World Bank. The pilot projects firstly were carried out in Hubei and Hunan.But until 2000,PIM in our country still were attached itself to the international assistance projects.In other words,implementing PIM had not become basic policy orientation in nationwide.After 2000,because of the achievement from PIM pilot projects,central government began to support PIM to spread in nationwide.The main form for PIM in our country is Water User Association,WUA.After 10 years,PIM in our country not only has achieved remarkable success,but also is confronted with many problems.These problems which hinder the reform show up universality in space,and immobility in time,so in the background of these superficial problems there are some reasons which are more deep-seated.After analysis of the more deep-seated reasons why PIM in our country can not go forward any more,we must provide the overall vision and policy proposals for the deepening of PIM in China.