Theoretical And Practical Researches On The Democratic Self-government Of Urban Community In China

Since the urban construction in China began in 1980s, the foundational problems have arisen puzzling our academic field and government, such as "What is community ?""What is urban community?""What is the relationship between community and society?"and "What is the function of urban community in China and what is the urban community construction practically based on?", which have an direct effect on the establishment of the aim value of our urban community construction , its orientation, the selection of its control patterns and developing paths. This dissertation theoretically and practically discusses the self-governing system construction of urban community beginning with the basic concepts of community. Community essentially results from the development of production mode in terms of mankind history. The transformation from nomadic society to agricultural society brings about the emergence of rural community while the existence of modern urban community is the result of industrial production mode taking the place of agricultural production one. Therefore, we define community as: community is that of social life with self-sufficient functions and integral social structure created by some production mode in some space . Viewing from the mankind survival, we may consider community as a life mode which is decided by the production mode and reflected by a specific residential model. Having been civilized out of barbarism, human beings created two forms of settlement, rural life and urban life. Hence, we can affirm that urban community mainly refers to the urban integrity, then the residential areas in inner cities. So we may divide urban community into the integral urban community and city's neighborhood. Because "urban community construction "in China is limited in city 's neighborhoods, in this dissertation, the integral urban community is regarded as the background of the construction of city's neighborhoods and the researches on the democratic self-government of urban community focus on that of city's neighborhoods. It is inevitable to conduct the construction of the democratic self-government system of urban community because it responds politically to the transformation of China society since China reform and opening overseas. The construction is necessarily not only required but also caused by our society transformation and is its essential element. It has made the state separated from society that planned economy system transformed to socialist market economy one. The change of social control model from mono-control of state power into dual control of state power and social power is realistically necessitated by the logic building of a relatively independent society and free space which is not directly controlled and dominated by state administrative power. In other words, it determines the inevitability of constructing political self-government system in the grassroots society. The interest exchange relationship created by market economy on the basis of individual interest division has changed not only people's economic life mode, but also their social and political mode. Interests and jobs ,as the leading constructive social connection, have formed the idea that people begin to behave from the starting point at which the legitimacy of interests is affirmed as the basic right and the criterion to judge its validity. The exchange principle of market economy must presuppose the equal status and rights of society members, which is guaranteed in the democratic social and political system .Thus, the political system at the grassroots society under reconstruction is bound to be democratic self-government system responding politically to the economic system construction of socialist market. Constructing the democratic self-governing system of urban community is essentially to cultivate the capability of community with the intention of achieving three goals: one is to carry on some social functions transferred from the government and to bring the independence and initiative of the society and residents into full play to promote favorable social development; the other is to construct the main order supply body of urban community(the social community) to meet the demands of order for public life in thecommunity; another one is to reconstruct the positional division between state (government) and society (community),and the functional division between the national power and the social power. All these will ensure the state, under the present democratic constitutional system, to put political control over community self-government and its power implementation that are external from national system. Consequently, the relationship of integration of duality involving rational division of function and harmonious cooperation will be shaped between the national political system and community self-governing system. The integration of duality primarily refers to the construction of community democratic self-governing system which lays the stress on making the structure of community public power scientific, the organizational structure rational and the community self-governing system perfect. Since the community construction began in China, as to community self-governing power, we have not yet make a clear recognition of its nature, function, scope, empowerment means and procedure and even the remedial measures when organizational law of the neighborhood committee is violated. As a result, we do not have any certain goals or clear paths when constructing community democratic self-governing system, which has restrained its development . Our contemporary power of urban community self-government is a kind of democratic social power with democracy and sociality as its essential features. The feature that community self-government is a social power in contrast to national political power determines its independence from administrative power, therefore it will not be directly dominated by administrative power. Differing from other types of social power, it is the "political power"in social life, so it must as well follow the operating rules of "public power"and can not be dominated by other social power, nor can it be exchanged with or replaced by other social power. The characteristics of democracy of community self-government indicate that the power belongs to the whole community residents who share it on the basis of equal social status and equal rights. This determines that the form of "political system"of community administration can only be a democratic onebut not others. It is of critical importance to make clear the nature of community self-governing power as it is a prerequisite for community construction. Specifically speaking, it has great effects not only on "who will rule"and "how to rule"in social life, namely, what kind of social ruling structure and social life order should be established, but also on what social foundation should be set up for democratic socialist political superstructure in the process of separating the state and society over social transformation. The scope of community residents'rights relies on the function of community self-government and the power nature of community self-government .In law theory, its power covers extensively. Given the residents do not violate law and other legal regulations, the scope is likely to involve affairs that are necessary and not prohibited by laws. Although the residents'self-governing rights are theoretically extensive , I hold the view that the structure of urban community residents'self-governing rights should consist of residents'rights of participation, voting, getting access to information, decision-making, management, supervision, relief in line with current laws, practical experience of residents self-management and the needs of the development of urban community democratic politics. However, the entitlement of self-governing to community residents will not automatically lead to a community administration built on democracy and residents'participation. The realization of urban community democratic self-governing and implementation of residents'rights require not only sound organizational framework and forms as carriers and scientific and tight systems to regulate, but also a rational and effective structure of public power to guarantee. In other words, only through constructing collective action mechanism and upgrading the democratic self-government rights of community residents to collective power (public power) can its democratic self-government rights be realized. As far as I am concerned, the structure of community public power, as the main body of community self control, is to be classified into three fundamental rights, the right of decision-making, management and supervision. Establishing a rational relationship among the three rights is an important approach to cultivate the community self-governing capability, torestructure community order and to develop community democracy. At present, in source, community management system in China includes one of the national supply and of self-generation of community. The system from state falls into three levels: state, province, and city (region). The self-generated system consists of comprehensive rules and regulations and individual ones. The currently existing problems in constructing urban community democratic self-government system lie in the following aspects: lack of adaptability and effectiveness, incompleteness of the system and the insufficient measures to guarantee the implementation. In order to strengthen the construction of urban community system, the focus should be on two aspects. On the one hand, community's capability to generate systems should be developed. The national system supply should be reinforced and its adaptability should be improved on the basis of extensive practice and exploration of community so that the model of system supply from top to bottom will be transformed into the model of system generation from bottom to the top. On the other hand, the guarantee system and mechanism for community self-government should be strengthened to ensure its democracy and validity. Self-governing neighborhood organization, a self-organizational form in the society, is a part of the integral social legal organizational system. In its existing and operating process, its internal structural relationship and its relationship with politics, economy and social organizations not only affect its operating effectiveness but also restrict the performance of community self-government function. Four interactive modes exist in community organizational life: competition, conflicts, cooperation and collaboration. In community(social life space), the interaction among community organizations reflects the real community life, and community self-management is normally presented by the process of interaction between self-government organizations and other social organizations in the community. The present problems in constructing community self-government organization are mainly: incomplete organizational system, unclear internal and external relationship, and its underdeveloped organizational forms. These problems are one of the reasons for inadequate order supply for public life and weak self-governing capability.Consequently, to explore and construct a mode of favorable interaction for community life and reinforce the establishment of community organizational system tend to be a crucial way to promote the community development, to construct harmonious order, to cultivate the capability of urban community democratic self-government.