Non-government Organizations And The Governance Transition Of Urban Grass-root Society

During the past decade, with the conversion of national macroscopic governing philosophy and political context, local governments at all levels has been changing their work center from "taking economic construction as the key task" which start since the Reform and Opening up to the theme of “Construct a harmonious society ”. In the new context of a series of grand narrative such as innovation of social management, the transformation of government function, social organization system construction, the Community Construction,which put advanced at the 1990 s with the "small government, large society" as the original intention and ultimate goal has still continuing and be put forward.In Shanghai, around the Community Construction, the Street-Community Agency,which represented the first-line managers in urban society, has carried out endless innovation practice in the fields such as innovation of social management, changing the supplying mode of public service,and community autonomy.The outstanding performance is that, around in the Street-Community Agency Institutions, they develop a large number of organizations so-called "Non-Government Organization". Where in Transformation of government functions at the street office, innovation of the supplying mode of public service, promoting the construction of community autonomy and other governance innovation practice, these organizations take a variety of ways and identity, to participate in the local practice of social governance.Where in the western world,the rise and explosion of Non-Government Organizations,has once been puffed and praised by both the government and academic circles as"the carrier of social autonomy development", “ the catalysts of change of government governance", " engine of democracy and autonomy ", and many other beautiful visions. A large number of studies suggest that with the development of government purchase Non-Government Organizations’ service, more and more Non-Government organizations will participate in the governance of urban society through a variety of projects,which will break the dominant position and single part of government in the traditional social governance system, so as to promote the benign interaction between the government and society and construct close cooperation, a new type of social governance with multiple-participation will be vividly portrayed. Under such logic,scholars believe that the key to the transformation of government governance is to provide sufficient social space, abundance resources and institutional environment to support the growth and development of Non-Government Organizations.However, some empirical researches based on development and operation of Non-Government Organizations from different parts in the domestic shows that, in China, there is not necessarily linear causal link between the development of Non-Government Organizations and the transformation of government governance, the conclusion which by vigorously developing Non-Government Organizations can promote the transformation of the social governance was something too simple and ideal.First of all, a number of empirical studies show that in the Chinese society, as a leader of the existing governance structure,the government can control and shape the institutional environment of Non-Government Organizations in a certain extent,so as to Guide and constraint their behavior towards the expectation of the governments.As a result,the behavior of Non-Government Organizations in China take on characteristics of “Decoupling of Organization”and “Institutional Isomorphism”Second, some other empirical research shows that: even under the "classification control" system which constructed by government,the behavior orientation of Non-Government Organizations also shows diverse characteristics, and they can put a certain influence on government actions and even it’s governance mode.Situations described above all show that in China, the relationship between the government and social organization is a process of dynamic evolution, the relationship between development of Non-Government Organizations and government behavior and pattern of governance is abnormal complex, far beyond the simple reasoning and imagine in many researches before. Though there are a large number of existing studies reveal that the development of Non-Government Organizations may bring in diversity governance characteristics,however, past studies in this field still lack a clear and system analysis framework to reveal and recognize links and mechanism between the development of Non-Government Organizations and the government governance mode change.As the bench-marking Street-Community to cultivate and the introduce Non-government Organizations to participate in grassroots social governance in Shanghai,what has changed in the governance mode of T Street-Community after introducing Non-governmentOrganizations participating in community ? Based on the experience cases of practice by T Street-Community, using the field research method and the perspective of organization research,this study constructs a new analysis framework which based on three dimensions of the practical institution — — Tiao-kuai relation,Street-Community relationship and the work of basic Party System,Using this analysis framework,this study investigated the essence of the Non-Government Organizations for T Street-Community governance mode systematically.This study shows that: changing from the Street-Community system to community system is a long-term evolution process, far beyond the simple reasoning and imagine from a lot of research before. As the representative of Non-Government Organization, W Club, Z Center and the X Club are just System patches of the existing Street-Community governance framework in more complexity social environment,they act the role of maintainer for the machine of Street-community System.By purchasing services, T Street Agency subcontract various governance task to Non-Government Organizations,on the one hand,this makes the Non-Government organizations involved in the grass-roots social management, to a certain extent, they eased the Tiao-Kai contradiction, improved the relationship between the Street Agency and Residents’ Committee, enriched and expanded the work of Basic Party, perfected the grass-roots form of governance,and strengthened the Street offices in the core hub position of grassroots governance in urban city;On the other hand, during the execution of projects in the community, through the mobilization and cooperation by Residents’ Committee,Property management committee and other Community autonomy team, these Non-Government organizations wipe on a lubricant to all kinds of gear on the Street-Community System, reducing the friction in the grassroots community in work process and added energy for their operation.So they greatly promoted both social mobilization ability and legitimacy for Street-Community System in the grass-roots governance structure. However, all this is under the premise that do not challenge the existing governance structure, just a strategic response to the governance crisis, and based on the a huge cost.