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Research On The Role Of Social Organization In The Public Conflict Governance

Posted on:2013-08-26Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:B Y ZhaoFull Text:PDF
GTID:1266330395987468Subject:Administrative Management
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
China has entered a key period of reform and development. In this period, thereare so many public conflicts happened. Some new characteristics of public conflictshave showed, such as diversification, bigger scale, deeper root etc. It is urgent tomanage, resolve and transform these public conflicts effectively. Government playsan important role in the governance of public conflicts and bears big governancepressure. Both the fractured social structure due to scarceness of middle social classand the top-down institutional pressure about keeping social stability intensify thegovernance pressure of the government. Accordingly, the effect of conflictmanagement has been largely limited. To meet the urgent requirements of managing,resolving and transforming public conflicts, to make up for government’s deficienciesin the governance of public conflicts, to relieve the pressure of the government, toenhance the governance effect of public conflicts, it is time to analyze thefelicitousness of the current governance model dominated by the government and thegovernance ideal and investigate the necessity, possibility, feasibility and possibleeffects of social bodies’ participating in the governance process of public conflicts.The participation of social organizations in the process of conflict governance isa meaningful research topic with both the theoretical significance and the practicalsignificance. Social organizations are public-interest oriented, non-profit, independent,and civil. These attributes are the basis of their participation in the public conflictgovernance. The most important mission of social organizations is supervising thegovernment and the market forces to inhibit power abuse and market violence as thethird sector wholely. Participating in public conflict governance is an importantchannel to achieve the above mission. For the moment, is it necessary and possiblefor social organizations in China to participate in public conflict management? Whatroles can social organizations play? These problems should be studied systematically.From a practical point of view, social organizations play two kinds of rolesmainly in the process of public conflict governance, the advocating third party (interest spokesman) and the neutral third party.First, social organizations involved in public conflicts as advocater for theinterests of specific groups take protecting the interests of these specific groups as theprimary task and take promoting the resolution of public conflict as the secondobjective. The loose groups in the public conflicts can set up their own organizationsor seek endorsement of other social organizations to safeguard their own interests inan organized way, which reflects the exercise of citizens’ association right.Consequently, the loose groups in public conflicts have clear group-interestrepresentatives, clear expressers of opinions in the process of public conflicts. Socialorganizations as representatives, expressers and communicators are helpful for thestable developing of public conflicts and the clearance and opening of dispute node.All conflict parties negotiate and consult with each other in an open and transparentatmosphere to seek the solution of the dispute rationally.Second, social organizations involved in public conflicts as neutral third partiesplay both the roles of assisters such as informer, fact-finder, healer, consultor, assessor,facilitator and the roles of managers and supervisors in the following managingprocess. All these diverse roles in public conflicts commit to public conflict resolutionthrough a variety of ways.There are two typical representatives of social organizations participating inpublic conflict process. One representative is the worker rights organization, which isset up from a bottom-up way. Safeguarding workers’ rights, building a harmoniouslabor-capital relation and promoting conflict resolution are the main objectives ofworker rights organizations. The other representative is the environmentalorganization. Promoting environmental justice, opposing environmental damage andprotecting public resources are their missions and goals. Therefore, these kinds ofsocial organizations participate in environmental conflicts actively and impact theconflict resolution process positively. Though China’s social organizations haverarely intervened into grand public clashes, they play a prevention and resolution rolein a microcosmic way. This phenomenon is relevant to the hard development situationof social organizations and their low-pitched acting style as well as the scarceparticipatory space. Overall, the micro-participation activities of social organizations still have great significance to the prevention and transformation of public conflict.There are two kinds of necessary conditions for social organizations’participation in public conflict governance. One kind of conditions is from the angleof social organization itself and the other kind of conditions is from the angle ofexternal environment. The former includes the following aspects: the awareness ofrole consciousness, the expansion of organizational function, enough enthusiasm andmotivation of participating in public affairs, better self-regulatory mechanism andcredibility, adhering to the public-welfare, civil and non-profit attributes, strongability of mobilization and specialization. Macro institutional space and microregulatory model about social organizations are the external conditions. The internalconditions and the external conditions influence each other, and the externalconditions are more important comparatively. As for the actual situation, both thescale and the impact of social organizations in China are increasing, the meaning ofsocial organizations’ participation in governance is repeatedly written in thedocuments of CCP and government, the macro institutional space affecting socialorganizations’ participation in public conflict management is gradually opened.However, in the micro level,“legitimate”social organizations are still restricted by thedual responsibility and management system. At the same time,“grass-rooted” socialorganizations still face the embarrassment of illegal identity. In a word, there are aseries of obstacles that affect social organizations’ participation in the governance ofpublic conflict, such as ambiguous legal status, uncertainty expression channels aboutpublic affairs, the shortage of capital and talents, the single functional area, indifferentrole awareness, conservative style, scarce experience of participation governance aswell as distrust from the government and uncomprehension from the public, etc.In order to improve the efficacy of social organizations in public conflictgovernance, both social organizations and governments need to work hard. Firstly,social organizations should strengthen the professional capacity and participationmotivity, promote the standardization of participating way and reinforce the capacityof building joint self-help system. Secondly, the government should dispel the doubtsto social organizations, understand the participation impulse of social organizationswith a more positive attitude, build the participating space of conflict governance for social organizations in a constructive manner, widen the participating channelsequally to all kinds of social organizations, and carry out the necessary supervisionand management about social organizations.
Keywords/Search Tags:Social organization, Public conflict, Conflict resolution, Participation&governance
PDF Full Text Request
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