The Social Construction Of China’s Democratic Administration

In the trend of global Governance of the21st century, all countries all over the world are experiencing great changes. Highly complex public issues as well as dynamic’and diverse social environment increase ungovernability of governments. The expansion of the citizens’ rights and the increase of the citizens’interest demands in democratic society highlight the lack of governance capacity. Public governance is facing severe challenges. This situation requires that governments adopt new framework and ways of thinking to deal with the complicated reality. It is important to the legitimacy of public governance, the authority of government and the legitimacy of public administration science whether governments in the world can change their traditional superiority and self-centeredness, arouse the citizens’ social responsibility and mobilize the self-management of society. Collaborative governance by both government and society will become not only an important topic in twenty-first century, but also the inevitable requirement of democratic reform of public administration and the social construction of democratic administration.As a controversial paradigm,"democratic administration" is put forward by criticizing the traditional public administration paradigm. Since the administration developed into an independent discipline, democracy has been restricted in the political level because of the influences of the political-administrative dichotomy,"tool-technology" rationality in traditional public administration and "managerialism" thinking. People seldom studied democracy from administrative level. Democracy has always maintained ambiguous relations with administration."Democratic administration" seems to be a paradoxical concept that may not exist. However, history and reality tell us that the administration was originally a branch of political science. The administration needs the help of the basic theories and methods of political science to analyze the government systems and behaviors. As a part of the political process public administration can’t be divorced from politics either in theory or in practice. Any practices that separate politics from administration will result in the lack of theoretical support for the development of public administration.With the deepening understanding of the political-administrative dichotomy, the rise of the administrative state and the decline of the legislative power, the relationship between democracy and administration is bridged, and is showing coupling trend. The voice that the public administration should assume democratic values in the governance process is becoming almost trendy. Dwight Waldo, the American administration scholar, noted that "If the administration is really the core of modern government, the democratic theory in the20th century must embrace administration". Dan Hate also quoted Levitan’s viewpoints, then stressed:"A democratic state not only is based on democratic principles, but also administrates democratically, allowing democratic philosophy penetrate the administrative machinery."Beverly,the American administration scholar,said that:"In the field of public administration, there is an emerging paradigm which advocates more effective administration for the public and internal employees should be created through more forceful response and multiple channels of communication, and which is called’the reconstruction of democratic administration’by Wamsley and Wolf." Vincent Ostrom thinks that the transition from "democratic administration" to "bureaucratic administration" means backward. On the contrary, the transition from "bureaucratic administration" to "democratic administration" actually means the turning of "Copernicus Revolution". In this context, western scholars rethink the value orientation and organization design of the traditional public administration, and so people increasingly pay attention to "democratic administration". The fusion of democracy and administration is a growing trend, and democratic administration is becoming an emerging research topic or model.Reviewing the development history of the public administration, the development and research abroad about the theory of democratic administration have been for almost half a century. There are many western political scientists and administrative scholars who made a lot of research in the paradigm of "democratic administration". Max Weber, Hamilton, Madison and Tocqueville have done earlier discussion. In the following days, new public administration school, Blacksburg Manifesto, new public service theory, post-modern public administration theory discussed the thought of "democratic administration" from different perspectives. Throughout the formation and development of western democratic administration, the democratic administration which developed around several core issues, such as constitutional limits, remodeling the role, improving public services and focusing on democratic discourse, has experienced historical evolution rule from rational construction to social construction and from single center governance to multi-centers governance.The rise and development of democratic administration not only comply with the historical evolution of democracy and the changes of government governance, but also are the development and innovation of the social governance. As the landmark transition in the development history of public administration, democratic administration has made outstanding contributions to promoting the development of the theory and practice of public administration. With the development of democratic politics and public admim’stration, our country has come to realize the value and importance of democratic administration and social construction in the research and practice of public administration.The social construction of the democratic administration, which is beyond the traditional administrative bureaucracy, prompting public governance towards democratization, strengthening the response to external environment by the government, as well as advocating public participation in public governance process, is the inevitable trend of the development of public administration and the ultimate goal of the development of society. The essence of constructing democratic administration is that public administration should be seen as a joint practice by government and society, rather than be confined in a closed environment that is self-described and self-constructed by government and officials.Following the research path of "historical context-theoretical analysis China’s reality-logical construction" and the historical context of western democratic administration from rational construction to social construction, this paper discusses how to promote the social construction of democratic administration with the methodology of social constructivism in China, the theoretical support of governance theory and the practical basis of China’s political, economic, cultural and social development. The social construction of democratic administration cannot do without the construction of "multi-cooperative governance community dominated by the government", and therefore the process of building the governance community is the process of promoting the social construction of democratic administration. Specifically, this paper, along the historical context from rational construction to social construction tries to construct the multi-cooperative governance community dominated by the government from the perspective of constructivism on the basis of the criticism of traditional public administration and the theoretical logic of mutual construction by "state and society". The paper inquires into the problems of role orientation, cooperation mechanism, governance field in governing subjects such as government, civil society (community and non-profit organizations), market (private sectors) and citizens etc. This paper aims to build a democratic governance model and the social cooperation mechanism in which government, society and citizens could dialogue, interact, negotiate and share, thus promoting the development of public administration,the construction of democratic politics and the innovation of social governance in China.This paper has six chapters. The research ideas and basic viewpoints of each chapter are as follows.The first chapter is the introduction. This chapter mainly expounds the origin and significance of the social construction of democratic administration, the research status at home and abroad, the definition of related concepts, research ideas and research methods.The second chapter is concerned with "methodology of constructing democratic administration:theoretical explanation of the social constructivism’ Based on the analysis of the constructivism and social constructivism theory, this chapter discusses the democratic prosperity of social construction, demonstrates the relationship between constructivism and democratic administration, and then analyzes the connotation of the democratic administration from the perspective of social constructivism. The basic viewpoints of this chapter are as follows. Social constructivism provides us with a new perspective of rediscovering public administration and a new framework for analyzing and researching public administration. In the framework of social construction, public administration is the practice activity in which government and society participate together. Governance subjects of public administration have undergone fundamental changes in role orientation, governing ideas and methods. The social construction of public administration advocates public participation in governance processes and positive interaction among government, society and citizens, which is the essence of democratic administration.The third chapter is concerned with"the historical evolution of western democratic administration:from rational construction to social construction ". This chapter first discusses the historical inevitability of the integration of democracy and administration, and then clarifies the background of the rise of the democratic administration on basis of criticizing the traditional public administration paradigm, and finally explores the rule and characteristics of the historical evolution of western democratic administration. The basic viewpoints of this chapter are as follows. The rise and development of democratic administration not only complies with the historical evolution of the democracy and the changes of government governance, but also is the development and innovation of the social governance. As the landmark transition in the development history of public administration, democratic administration has made outstanding contributions to promoting the development of the theory and practice of public administration. Throughout the formation and development of the western democratic administration, the democratic administration which developed around several core issues, such as the constitutional limits, remodeling the role, improving public services and focusing on democratic discourse, has experienced historical evolution rule from rational construction to social construction and from single center governance to multi-centers governance.The fourth chapter is concerned with "theoretical logic of the social construction of China’s democratic administration". This chapter focuses on the relationship between governance theory and democratic administration. Firstly, the chapter explains the meaning of governance and its internal relationship with the democratic administrative; Secondly, the chapter discusses the applicability of governance theory in china. The basic viewpoints of this chapter are as follows. Governance theory, giving a new perspective of democracy, promotes the integration of democracy and public administration, and reveals new changes of public governance in the era of globalization, so there are solid theoretical foundations in the social construction of democratic administration in China. Governance means redistribution of the relationship between state and society, which marks the return of the state power to the society. In the context of Chinese governance, building a government-dominating cooperative governance community conforms to the approach of government management, and it is an inherent requirement of governance in the sense of good governance. At the same time it is also the objective requirement of modern governance systems, market economy and civil society. The government-dominating cooperative governance community is the inevitable result of the changes of human social governance modes and an important way to promote the construction of democratic administration society. As a governance mechanism of public affairs, the government-dominating cooperative governance community is constructed according to common norms and democratic governance between different governing subjects, which is a value community, a target community and a community of interests. Diversified governance subjects have common values, common goals and common interests. Within the community there are the mechanisms and organization structures of resource sharing, mutual dependence, mutual cooperation which are formed through dialogue, consultation, negotiation, cooperation among government, civil society (communities and non-profit organizations), market (private sectors) and citizens. The ultimate purpose of the governing community is to promote co-governance between government, civil society (communities and non-profit organizations), market (private sectors) and citizens in public affairs, thus optimizing public services, enhancing public governance, and achieving democracy in the public governance. Public energy field is the field and vehicle of governing community. Political identity, mutual trust on ethics, well defined power and responsibility and interest coordination are the operation rules and cooperation mechanism of governing community.The fifth chapter is concerned with "realistic basis of the social construction of China’s democratic administration". This chapter first discusses macroscopic environments of the social construction of democratic administration from four aspects of economy, politics, culture and society, and then discusses the achievements and shortcomings of the construction of democratic administration in China. The basic viewpoint of this chapter is that the social construction of democratic administration is the product of profound economic, political, cultural and social changes in China.The sixth chapter is concerned with "the choice of path to social construction of China’s democratic administration:the building of governing community." This chapter explores the ideas and processes of the construction of democratic administration and "governing community" around four aspects of concept construction, subject construction, rule construction and spatial construction. The basic viewpoints of this chapter are as follows. Holding on the public is the basic idea and value pursuit of social construction of democratic administration. Consensus and cooperation are required among such multiple subjects as governments, citizens and social organizations in the social construction of democratic administration. Political identity, well defined power and responsibility, mutual trust on ethics, and interest coordination are the rules of governing community; they are also a guarantee for the social construction of democratic administration. The governing community needs some public domain. Community and cyberspace construction, in which there are a lot of room for the growth of social construction of democratic administration, are the important fields of governing community in our country.The possible innovation of this paper may be somewhat as follows. Initially, the paper systematically combs historical evolution of western democratic administration, and discusses historical evolution rule from rational construction to social construction and from single center governance to multi-centers governance. Secondly, the paper constructs democratic administration with the perspective of social constructivism. Social constructivism provides us with a new perspective of rediscovering public administration and a new framework for analyzing and researching public administration. In the framework of social construction, public administration is the practice activity in which government and society participate together. Governance subjects of public administration have undergone fundamental changes in role orientation, governing ideas and methods. The essence of the social construction of public administration is democratic administration. Thirdly, in this paper, we present a "multi-cooperative governance community dominated by the government" with the methodology of social constructivism, the theoretical support of governance theory,the practical basis in our country and the theoretical logic of bidirectional construction by "state and society". The paper explains the connotation, objective, role orientation, governance field and cooperation mechanism of governing community, and then constructs the governing community from three aspects of concept, subject and governance field.