The Governance Model And Its Variation Of Danwei Block Within Giant State-owned Enterprises

Since the 1990 s,along with the further process of reform and opening up,there has been a fundamental change of China's urban social governance model.In the era of planned economy,China's social structure presented the characteristics of totality society,and the unity of politics,economy and culture.On the basis of this,the government organized,mobilized and governed urban society through the "unit system" and the street committee system was taken as auxiliary system.After reform and opening-up,China has experienced the transition from planed economy to market economy.Accordingly,with the division of various areas in the nation,the danwei system collapsed gradually,and the vertical governance structure of "nation-danwei-individuals" changed as well.In the last decade of 20 century,with the boom of the community building movement,the government promoted the community construction to strengthen the street committee system,and then to reconstruct urban grassroots social order.In recent years,with the accumulation of community construction practice,many cities and local governments proposed distinctive governance models of the street committee system,these models reflects the changes and adjustments of "state and society" relationship in the governance process.In this study,from the perspective of "nation-enterprises-society",the author adopted the method of literature research and field research to study the governance model of danwei block within giant state-owned enterprises(SOEs)in C city.Through the study,it can be found that unlike the general model which characterized the changes from "danwei system" to "committee system",the governance model and its variation of danwei block within giant SOEs have some unique features.The changing process can be divided into approximately three stages:1."danwei running society"governance model of the street committee system in the era of planned economy;2.transformation of "desocialization process of danwei" governance model of the street committee system after reform and opening-up;3."development zone system"characterized by the integration of administration and enterprises in the new period.From the point of view of the origin and the formation of those blocks,they were founded along with the formation of China's industrialization.Since China is a late-modernization nation,strategic development model of compression supported by danwei system was adopted in the early years of New China.Therefore,SOEs and blocks had a natural close contact,which made the block within giant SOEs a unity of politics,economy,culture and society.In the context of totality society,"danwei running society" has become block governance tradition within SOEs.This tradition of governance has the following features:1.It has formed a three level vertical governance system of "nation-danwei-individuals".2.SOEs has "pack down"(has overall accountability for)their staff and workers' welfare system and basic public services.3.The social space of danwei block was closed.4.The government of street committee system was marginalized.During this period,as a part of national institutions,SOEs not only execute production functions,but also political and social functions.In the 1990s,with the transformation of economic system,modern enterprise system has been established,and the economic functions of SOEs had been strengthened while the social functions had been weakened.The traditional "danwei running society" governance model of the street committee system was questioned and criticized.Therefore enterprises began to experience the transformation to"desocialization process of danwei".But in the actual study,it can be found that the"danwei running society" governance tradition which was shaped in the era of planned economy did not change in-depth during the transitional period.In fact,the process of"desocialization process of danwei" was a very slow progress compared to the block governance transition process.The process that SOEs peeling off social responsibility involved not only the re-identification of social responsibility among the government,enterprises,and society,also involved restricting and redifining the relationship between government and enterprises,financial investment in mutual agreement,the transfer of personnel and other agencies and many other factors.Giant SOEs have dominated the governance of street committee for a long time.First of all,enterprises established first in the blocks followed by the local governments.Second,giant SOEs have a high administrative level,and were under the leadership of national ministries and commissions directly.Last but not least,enterprises were centralized and closed,from the perspective of resources possession.It can be seen that the resources owned by enterprises were far beyond that owned by local governments.Hence,the pattern of "powerful enterprise-weak government" was shaped in the block,as well as local governments' heavy reliance on giant SOEs in economy.In this kind of pattern,local governments have no capability to carry the full responsibility of public administration which partly carried by giant SOEs.On the other hand,giant SOEs do not want to be the lower hand in the issue of governance of street committee,which means to be subordinate to the local governments.Therefore,though danwei system disintegrates along with the reforming of labor,personnel and distribution systems and housing system having been implemented inside the giant SOEs,the "desocialization process of danwei" is not truly realized.Hence,in the early transition,giant SOEs just took the approach of "partial peeling off",and"internal market-oriented reform",which means giant SOEs continue to take on powers and responsibilities in the governance of street committee.Around the year 2000,the government-led community development movement has met a certain degree of constraint in danwei blocks within SOEs.In the early period of new century,under the promotion of relevant policies of"central-owned enterprises peeling off social responsibility",the "desocialization process of danwei" of giant SOEs accelerated.In the meantime,giant SOEs as huge economic entity has influenced the development of regional industries significantly and already been the pillar of the regional economy.Local governments' reliance on giant SOEs was based on the logic of "developmentalism,".Under the two-sided background,the governance models of street committee within giant SOEs have changed.During the process of "desocialization of danwei",the social management and public service functions of giant SOEs was not simply peeled off,but a new pattern of governance was established to continue the dominant of enterprises in the governance of street committee.In the case of this study,the government and SOEs choose to establish a"development zone system",in order to adjust the relationship between government and enterprises in block governance.The "development zone system" integrated government and SOEs,which continued the block governance power of the SOEs.This "development zone system",which appears to be a transitional expediency,in fact,reflects that in the background of developmentalism,there exists "weak government" logic in the danwei block within SOEs.