A Discussion On The Historical Evolution And Reform Of The Personnel System Of Grassroots Cadres

Institutions shape individuals,and individuals are a product of institutions.According to the Marxist cadre theory,the personnel system for grass-roots cadres holds the key to understanding the political system and national governance,and is also the research field critical to building political science with socialist characteristics.The theory of institutional change argues that formal and informal institutions constitute “institutional integration”.This “institutional integration” is reflected on the grass-roots society as the regulation and restraint from formal textual institution and the influence and permeation of informal institution left by the traditional society.However,a grassroots society is a “rural society” with its own “situational” factors.In this sense,grass-roots cadres not only are individuals in an institutional system who are deeply constrained by the formal institutions,including policies,laws and regulations,but also are individuals in an institutional culture who are deeply influenced by the informal institutions,such as “official rank-oriented standard” and “local culture”.Grass-roots cadres are the key and core factor in achieving political modernization,but as people with “situational rationales”,their purpose is to pursue individual rationality and seek opportunity cost.Additionally,the existence of pressurized institution will inevitably squeeze intensively,as a result of which,the grass-roots cadres are highly likely to be overwhelmed and insufficiently motivated to act.Hence,it is urgent to initiate the reform of personnel system for grass-roots cadres,repair and perfect the unreasonable elements in the system,and remove the institutional and “situational” troubles for grass-roots cadres.This paper focuses on the changing factor —— “institution”,straightens out the process of the history of the personnel system for grass-roots cadres from the perspective of the Marxist cadre theory and the institutional change theory,sums up the realistic difficulties facing the personnel management of grass-roots cadres,in an attempt to explore the reform path of the personnel system for grass-roots cadres.After nearly a hundred years,the Chinese Communist Party has gathered rich hands-on experience in grass-roots cadre-related work,and its institutional system building not only abandons traditional bureaucratic thoughts but is also extracted from constant practice.Nonetheless,the current institutional arrangement still has deficiencies: the current formal institution implemented from the central government to provinces,cities,and counties(districts)is beset by the undersupply of policy systems,so the absence of institutions is to be rectified,the connection between institutions is to be strengthened,and institutional concepts are to be improved.The shortage and imbalance of informal institutional constraints in the “context” of grass-roots society,the tendency of “official rank-oriented standard” in traditional culture,soliciting favor and pulling strings in “acquaintance society”,“non-action as officials” under ideological limitations,formalism caused by inappropriate concept of political achievements and other factors all have a profound influence on the implementation and role of cadre work.Grass-roots cadre personnel system has a number of problems,including poor implementation and obstructed implementation mechanism,inaccuracy of selection and appointment,impertinence of related education and training,lack of systematicness in managerial supervision,and ineffectiveness of incentives and constraints.The reform of personnel system for grass-roots cadres also have path dependence,while the negative influence of non-institutional factors has also given rise to ideological obstacles.The reform not only lags behind the pace of social transformation,but also causes institutional obstacles because of traditional institutional inertia.Moreover,the objective existence of the absence or misplacement of party committees and their organization departments poses an obstacle to organizational behavior,and the lack of supporting mechanisms,such as scientific verification,analysis and judgement,while renewal causes institutional obstacles.Therefore,it is necessary to explore the right path for the reform of personnel system for grass-roots cadres,and the reform should have its own value orientation.The general idea should focus on being “scientific,reasonable,effective and easy to implement”,selection and appointment should emphasize increasing accuracy,related education and training should prioritize improving capability and quality,management supervision should be strict in discipline and supervision,whereas incentives and restraints should concentrate on promoting a sense of responsibility.