GESW & Harmonious-Sustainable Development Of The Economic Societies Of The Ethnic Minorities In The West

In the context of the Great Exploitation Strategy of the West (GESW) and the economic societies of the ethnic minorities in the west of China, the author of this dissertation, has addressed the issue how to achieve harmonious and sustainable development of the western ethnic societies in 3 dimensions– harmonious- sustainable development of the man-man relationship, harmonious-sustainable development of the man-substance relationship, and harmonious-sustainable development of the man-nature relationship, by adopting the perspective of political economics and assumptions of the socialist"shared prosperity"and the"equity principle"of sustainable development. Hereby the author has proposed a theoretical framework and accessible paths to achieve harmonious-sustainable development of the societies of the ethnic peoples through the great exploitation program.The dissertation breaks into 4 parts consisting of 13 chapters excluding the Introduction. The main contents discussed and core ideas addressed in the paper are listed briefly as the followings:Within Part One titled Recognition and Introspection under the Great Exploitation Strategy of the West the writer addresses in 4 chapters the issues - the essence of the Great Exploitation Strategy, i.e. shared prosperity, the rationale of shared prosperity in the context of political economics, the source of poverty of the poor ethnic peoples in the west, and the equity principle of sustainable development. The author delivers the core idea that socialist shared prosperity and harmonious-sustainable development hold identical values and show no difference in terms of equity and justice. Therefore the author suggests that the accessible paths to achieve shared prosperity and harmonious-sustainable development of the ethnic societies in the west are to guarantee equitable and just man-man relationship, equitable and just man-substance relationship, and equitable and just man-nature relationship as well. The major arguments are:(1) The doctrines of"two overall-concerns"formulated by the former senior leader Deng Xiaoping and"shared prosperity"defined by socialist institutions are the guiding ideologies and theoretical basis for the Great Exploitation Strategy of the West. Accordingly any other theories or doctrines for regional development are not guidelines or cognitive basis for the exploitation program.(2)"Shared prosperity"is the essence as well as code of socialism and it is defined by the public ownership of production means that determines the man-man relationship among people. This in return determines that the people's wealth, or the social surplus, which is earned by the public ownership, must be distributed equally among peoples and mustn't be distributed on the rule of"efficiency gaining priority".(3) Great Exploitation of the West is not immense mineral extraction, not abusive destruction, and not fortune-making either. Rather it is a program of great construction, great development and great protection; its essence and goal are to realize shared prosperity and harmonious-sustainable development between the Chinese and the ethnic minorities.(4) Because of being deferred in development, the source or origin of poverty in the ethnic communities is inadequate provision of entitlements - that is, ethnic poverty is a result or effect of entitlement constraints. Consequently, the ethnic minorities are encountering"entitlement failures"in the man-man relationship and market-economy transactions. Therefore, in concrete practices of the exploitation program the Chinese government must enhance entitlement provision to the minorities and reinstall as well as readjust equally and justly the man-man relationship.(5) The first principle of sustainable development is the"equity principle", whereas"intra-generation equity"is the first regulation of the"equity principle". This indicates that sustainable development aims to achieve primarily"inter-generation equity", i.e."ethnic equity"in this thesis (equal and just production relationship in the perspective of political economics), and then obtain ultimately"generation equity"(equal and just production force and production mode).(6) Socialist harmonious society embraces the core value of"equity and justice", hence a kind of equal and just social institutional arrangement. Such a society should incarnates itself as a society with harmonious man-man relationship (equal and just production relationship), harmonious man-substance relationship (equal and just production force), and harmonious man-nature relationship (equal and just production mode).In Part Two which is named Harmonious-Sustainable Development of the Man-Man Relationship, the author, taking granted the socialist man-man relationship (also the ethnic relationships in the context of this dissertation) as the production relationship in the perspective of political economics stereotyped by Marxism, and obeying the principle of equity and justice contained by a harmonious society and in sustainable development, the author makes clear the point of view that the key task of realization of harmonious-sustainable development of the man-man relationship is to establish an equitable and just production relationship embedding"shared prosperity"– i.e. an equal and just distributive relationship. As backup contents, the writer dwells on the relations as simplifying the governmental hierarchy & uniting the urban-rural household registration, consummating the ethnic regional autonomy & improving development of the communities, building infrastructures & developing public facilities, and popularizing social security & developing ethnic education. By recommending these instrumental mechanisms, the author makes attempts to break up the rural-urban dual structure in the Chinese society, which is characterized by"governance with rural-urban division, and one country with two policies", and efforts to pave the entitlement and development base for the takeoff of the societies of the minorities in the west.The part falls into 4 chapters, releasing the following main arguments:(1) The Chinese governmental hierarchy is so delaminated and overlapping that it is the main cause of the"agriculture-peasantry-countryside problem"in current China, whereas the dual impartial urban-rural household registering system has solidified and harnessed the dual structure of the society. In order to achieve the goal that all peoples share prosperity in a society with harmonious and sustainable development, the existing superstructure and production relationship which defends authority and impedes efficiency must be reformed and re-build the government into 3–leveled government: withdraw the Twon and Township, make the Province supervise directly the County, and govern the Prefecture and County separately but equally.(2) Political rights are the basic rights of the civil rights. They either expand or restrain the other rights of a citizen and thus are the most important factors to influence the man-man relationship. Therefore if the peasants including ethnic peasants are to be empowered with more entitlements, more political rights should be granted first to them.– Autonomous Prefectures need to be removed; more Autonomous Counties should be added; and all Communities ought to be autonomous all over the country.(3) Infrastructures and public facilities are basic social capitals. They bring extensively positive internalities unto people's production as well as life and thus are the ample and necessary conditions for any social and economic development. The infrastructures and public facilities in the ethnic communities in the west are so poor and underdeveloped that they have critically hindered the social and economic development. This suggests that the Chinese government increase its investments on infrastructures and public facilities in the west as much amount and percentage as that need to cut abruptly the"vicious circle of poverty"– 30% to 40% of the total investments and being invested in a"big push"way over time. Otherwise the economic societies of the poor minorities in the west won't"take off"as imagined in theories.(4) Social security and education, especially education, link to reproduction of labor force and accumulation of human capital. They belong to the category of basic social capitals and are natured with the features of public goods. This denotes that the State take full responsibility to provide all of her citizens with the same social securities and distribute equally the educational resources both in the urban and rural communities. In other words, the socialist surpluses should be owned by the people, shared by the people, divided by the people, and are supposed to be the backbone to support a harmonious-sustainable man-man relationship and labor force.In Part Three, the author assumes that the man-substance relationship be the production force which is a joint force made by production relationships and production modes. Under this assumption and with regards to structure, organization and mechanism of production modes and methods, the author focuses his analysis on the paradigm shifts and institutional settlements as circulation of the public ownership of arable land, cooperative economy and corporate organizations, profit-sharing mechanisms, readjustment of industrial structures, development of county economy, etc. As an outcome of the analysis the author has constructed applicable instruments and means to deconstruct the small-scale peasant economy, to transfer and civilize the peasants, and to gain harmonious-sustainable development in the sense of production, life and ecology.The part consists of 3 chapters and holds on the following key arguments:(1) The small-scale peasant economy, basing on a simple production mode serving self-sufficiency, is not consistent with modern industrial expanded reproductions. It obstructs seriously promotion of the labor productivity and industrialization as well as sustainable development of the agriculture. In this regard, the ultimate path to resolve the"agriculture-peasantry-countryside problem"and thus to turn the peasantry form poverty into prosperity is to reduce peasants, annihilate the simple production mode, to transmit the remnant peasants to the second, third industries and let them walk on the road of urbanization, which is defined as"looking for jobs on the market and living on social securities while jobless". The writer thereby suggests that the top priority task is to speed up circulation and transfer of the property rights of the collective land so as to create favorable conditions for deconstruction of the small-scale peasant economy and urbanization of the countryside.(2) Circulation of the collective land is not privatization of land, but marketing confined in socialism. The people's congresses in different levels must shoulder the task of circulation in which the following rules must be enforced strictly: purchasing land and renting land unitarily, renting land only without official approving, making loans only without capital investing, and paid use of land, etc. The purpose of these rules is to safeguard the socialist character of the land and increase its values. Governments have no rights or authority to approve or ratify application of land use. All enterprises, firms, public organizations and individuals must pay land rent to the national land owner who is the entire population of people.(3) In urbanization the peasants should be allowed to exchange social securities and vocational schooling with their contracted land. They also should be encouraged to join cooperatives or organizations as shareholders by their land, by their labor force and by their other properties. While exploring resources or building infrastructures in the ethnic communities in the west, such principles as"who exploits, who takes responsibility"and"who requisitions, who holds responsibility"must be put in practice. Enterprises or firms should be compelled to allow the peasants being impacted by exploitation to exchange stocks from the firm in question by their land, labor, estate or other properties so as to build cooperatives or corporations run in benefit-sharing mechanisms. Exploitation hereby will be changed from compensation into investment and thus the ethnic communities in the west will be in the track of sustainable development.(4) The provinces and autonomous regions in the west need to change their unfavorable industrial pattern which is defined as"the West sends out resources whereas the East processes resources". In stead the industrial structures are supposed to be shifted to downstream processing, transforming so as to turn comparative advantages in natural resources into competitive advantages in market transactions. The provinces, regions, cities, counties in the west should also make efforts to carry out projects of"beautifying the mountains and rivers"and turn simultaneously traditional agriculture for grains into forestry, animal husbandry, fruit planting, vegetable growing, flower growing, herb planting, etc. in which environmental protection, tourism, recreation, sports, farming, etc. are all integrated. For the strategic goals to achieve structural readjustment of industries and better-off of people's living in the whole area, the governments in the west are supposed to take county economy tactically as a lever to prize local growth as well as development. In other words, the strategic goals are to be achieved basically through readjustment, industrialization, and urbanization taking place in the counties.In Part Four, the man-nature relationship is perceived being relating to not only production force and production mode but also production relationship simultaneously. Yet in practice the man-nature relationship embodies as the question how human beings control and regulate their own actions in front of the ecological nature. In other words it is an environmental managerial or administrative issue to resolve the development-protection dilemma. Sustainable development commands a country satisfy her whole population with basic necessities for living not only through promoting productivity but also by providing equal opportunities to all people, including equal treatment and effective participation. Hence taking as a standing point the perspective of social constructionism in environmental sociology the author has transformed the conceptual framework of social constructionism into a practical model with mechanisms defined in the perspective of political economics. In the author's eyes, formulation as well as governance of environmental problems is a political process invited all kinds of actors from all walks of society. That is, it is a political process in which different interest groups play game and exchange power in order to achieve the Nash Equilibrium whereby the interest of every actor is maximized. In this way of theoretical construction and empirical reflection to China's environmental administration the author offers the theoretical basis and practical policy instruments to achieve harmonious and sustainable development. Then in the end chapter, i.e., Chapter 13, also as the general conclusion of this dissertation, the author writes on establishing and defining indicators for examination and control of the three relationships discovered in the paper. The purpose of this attempt is to provide Chinese government agencies with institutional settlements to guarantee harmonious and sustainable development of the three relationships.This part is divided into 2 chapters bearing the following arguments:(1) In the perspective of political economics environmental problems are results of political game-playing participated by different economic actors, i.e. outcomes of social construction made up by principal actors. The construction is a political or policy process. The principal actors come from three walks: international organizations including NGOs, state or government organizations or agencies, and societal organizations or individual citizens. The process and mechanism of social construction divides itself into five steps: expressing opinions, making claims, making decision (including legislation and institutional building), taking actions, and imposing provisions.(2) Construction and management of environmental problems in China is conducted generally by the State or its governments. The State plays the overall and dominant role. Thus it is a sort of State construction, State governance. This typology of construction is unable to demark among interest groups clear boundaries between rights and duties on the man-nature relationship. Consequently the entitlements of the weak groups, e.g. the ethnic communities in the west, are usually overlooked or even denied. Therefore the author recommends that in China and in the Great Exploitation program societal organizations and actors be invited extensively into environmental construction and governance so as to shift State construction and State governance to Social construction and Social governance.(3) For the purpose to realize real social construction of the man-nature relationship and true public participation in administration, China's existent state-society relationship is expected to shift from State corporatism to Social corporatism. In other words, the emphasis is that the State should cooperate with the Society rather than the Society should cooperate with the State. This means that the State is expected to delegate more power down to the Society and to transfer more benefits down to the people. On the one side, people should be recognized and encouraged to establish their own independent organizations; the mass media should be granted more freedom and independence; the government and its civil servants need to be value-neutral and concerned with the entitlements of the interested parties. In sum, the process of environmental construction should be institutionalized into a democratic, equitable, and harmonious process. On the other side, some relative laws and statutes as Law of Administrative Procedures, Decision-Making Rules for Environmental Problems, etc. should be legislated and put into action, by which speculative and pragmatic behaviors of local governments and officials would be minimized. In sum, the process of environmental construction should be legitimized into a scientific, continuous, and sustainable process.(4) While dealing with the relationship between exploitation and sustainable development of the ethnic societies in the west, interested parties, local communities, village committees, experts and scholars, local congressmen, the mass media and NGOs should be involved from end to end in projects of exploitation, i.e. from option, assessment, approval and construction to supervision. Decision-making conducted solely by officials, i.e."Power talks", or solely by businessman, i.e."Money talks", should all be avoided in exploitation and environmental construction. More importantly, both exploitation and sustainable development should be achieved according to the binding principles of "intra-generation equity"and"interest-sharing".(5) Schemes of indicators for examination and supervision must be formulated in order to guide and assess the governments'efforts made on implementing harmonious-sustainable development of the man-man relationship, man-substance relationship and man-nature relationship. Thus three schemes of indicators for examination are defined and constructed by the author in the last chapter, which is also perceived as the general conclusion of the dissertation.