A Study On Mass Organazations Reform

Prior to 1949,the mass organizations acted as bridges and ties between the party and the mass,through which party leaders lead,mobilize and connect people.After the founding of the People's Republic of China,the problems of the bureaucratization of the mass organizations have become increasingly prominent,which does not be eliminated in the long run and accordingly weakened the functions of bridges and ties.After 1978,the mass organizations presented itself like "pendulums" during the four stages of the reform that took place at the national or local level by working sometimes like the party and government departments while sometimes like social organizations,which fails the expected reform.The emergence of the pendulum can be partially attributed to the logic of the relations between the party and the masses,the state and society and the periodical arrangements during the reform.Historically,mass organizations were established and led by the party,bearing the characteristics of dynamically adjusting organizational functions and roles in line with the party's intentions.After the reform and opening up,both the party and the state hope realize the reproduction of state power in the social field as well as solve the problem of insufficient social autonomy through the mass organization at the same time.Therefore,on the one hand,it continued the tradition of acting as an institutional arrangement for the state to reconstruct the social organization system at the initial stage of state power construction by emphasizing maintaining the relationship between the party and the masses,the state and the society through the mass organizations.On the other hand,they also try more enthusiastically to activate the mass organizations to act like social groups in order to promote the orderly growth of social organizations.In this case,in terms of external conditions and environment,the mass organizations have the external institutional constraints and external motivation to swing like the pendulums.The pendulum phenomenon is also the result of internal institutional arrangements and action choices of mass organizations.First of all,the "Party and League" and"representative system" that guarantee the effective communication between the party,mass organizations and the masses in the revolutionary period,owing to the influence of the increasingly intensive unified leadership in the process of political power establishment,the former gradually changes from "persuasion and political work"oriented to "command" oriented while the latter gradually shifts from a way to select mass cadres into a symbolic system.This change paralyzes "Party and League" and"Representative System" squeezing the relatively independency of the mass organization and the long-term social support offered by the mass,which can actually be regarded as one of the important reasons why mass organizations swings like pendulums revolving around sub-government departments.Secondly,since the state formally incorporated the mass organizations into the political regime,the mass organizations transformed from the independent ones which,however,are tamed politically to the sub-governmental departments.It's not only objectively strengthened the dependence of the mass organizations on party and government departments,but also established the mass organizations on the status which is lower than the party and government departments but higher than the general social organizations.Correspondingly,the performance evaluation system of mass organizations is also based on the satisfaction of the party and government as well as the mass.The extending existence of these operational systems has largely determined the long-term nature of the "pendulum" phenomenon.Finally,with the escalation of the state rewards to the mass cadres,"cadre-type occupation middleman",the personnel of the mass organizations,has undergone a process of continuous reinforcement and fixation.In order to maintain the status of both organizations and individuals,the cadres have two choices:getting promotion or seeking occupational safety.From the material gathered from my field work,the reason was that people working at the institution increasingly adopted the position of cadre-type professional intermediaries.The limited reform preserved the existence of the organizations and the existing position of cadres in the institution.Emphasizing its political advantage and bridging function,the mass organizations was willing to undertake tasks assigned by the party and government,which reduced the difference between the social organization and the latter.On the other hand,as the policy emphasized on the transition into a social organization,the organizations enhanced its functions as a social organization.It,however,resisted turning into a complete social organization.In this perspective,the pendulum is almost an option for organizing self-sustaining.Thus the pendulum in the past reform was the result of the coupling effect of both the institution and actors.That is,it was caused not merely by institutional arrangements and periodical change of orders from above,but also by the collective actions of the cadre group in the mass organizations.Thus,the future reform of the mass organizations should proceed from both the institution and actions.