On Points-based System In Community Governance

The basic requirements of the 18 th and 19 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China on social governance are: detailed governance,governance center down to communities,establishing a social governance model based on collaboration,participation,and common interests.Urban and rural communities are the basic unit and foundation of social construction and social governance,and the pipe ends of national governance and social governance.The points-based system in communities focuses on the positive social behavior of community residents and forms a looped community governance mechanism,in which,the community residents are promoted from the prisoner's dilemma to cooperation in the provision of public affairs.The points-based system is based on the goals and needs of community governance to measure and record the positive social behavior of the community by points.Inducements are offered regularly to encourage positive social behavior,promote positive energy and innovate social governance in communities.Points accounts are opened for residents,families,community associations and the Communist Party members.The points are divided into four categories including ideological and political work,community construction,security and stability as well as honor and awards.There are total 196 pointing items which varies from 1 to 500 points.In 2015,Jingmen City of Hubei Province began to implement the points-based system in communities of Liuhe,Baishipo,Taying,Jinxiang and others to explore the innovation of social governance mechanisms and achieve good effects of community governance.Up to August of 2017,818 communities(villages)have implemented the points-based system,accounting for 52.23% of the total number of communities in the city.The number of residents participating in the system is 255,100,accounting for 8.53% of the population of the city.The number of participating families is about 90,200,accounting for 9.0% of the total number of households,which was 1,029,900.The total score is 2,853,580 points,of which ideological and political work accounts for 54.6%,community construction 30.3%,security and stability14.4% and honor and awards 0.6%.Three changes are achieved in the social governance in the grass-roots level,which includes decisions are made by the people instead of for the people,unicentral administrative management is changed into multidisciplinary and co-governance,the community workers acting alone is turned into collective action of all residents.Based on the practical data of points-based system in Jingmen,this paper uses case study,factor analysis,in-depth interviews and other methods to study the internal mechanism and governance effect of the points-based system,and explore how it promotes community residents from prisoner's dilemma to cooperation.In this paper,the logical relationship between points(ie,positive social behavior)and the residents' individual utility and the goals of community governance is discussed,the personal utility function of the residents' positive social behavior and the objective function of the community social governance are constructed,the relationship content between pointing criteria and the private costs and social benefits of the participants,the scope of the points analyzed,and boundaries(ie,the upper and lower limits)of the rewards of positive social behavior explored.Scientifically defining the theoretical logic between the residents' positive social behaviors and the individual utility of the residents and the social governance goals respectively is the source of improving of the points-based system.The first is to explore the theoretical logic between the individual utility of the residents and pointing items(positive social behavior)and pointing criteria.The second is to explore the theoretical logic between the individual implementation of positive social behavior(pointing items)and the social governance objectives of the community.The clearer the two theoretical logics,the more easily to promote the unity of the individual goals of the residents and the social governance goals of the community,the more deeply to guide and optimize the positive social behavior.Scientifically defining these two theoretical logics is not only conducive to promoting cooperation among residents,families,community organizations and commercial organizations,but also to promote dialogues among grassroots Party organizations,Party members,governments,and their functional departments.Therefore,the benign interaction mechanism of five-sphere integrated plan with the Party,the government,the people,the social societies and the enterprises is to be established.The points-based system follows the logic of public goods theory.The greater the social benefit is,the higher the private cost is and the higher the pointing criteria.The social benefits and private costs of positive social behavior are the scale and basis for measuring the positive social behavior of the community residents,and the core elements and essential connotations of the points-based system.Through the pointing items and their score,the community participation degree and public contribution of the residents can be identified,the effective participation of the provision of community affairs and its mechanism are solved,and the problem of “pretending to act” in the co-governing in communities is solved.The boundaries of the points reward(ie,the upper and lower limits)are the individual costs and social benefits of the residents' positive social behavior.The rewards are the compensation of the residents' positive social behavior and their individual cost.According to the contribution to social governance in communities(ie,the level of points),the residents in the points-based system are divided into three categories: no contribution,small contribution,and big contribution.The rewarding system is to promote the distribution of public resources in the community be biased towards residents with more points(ie,contributing more greatly to community building).The immediate reward is a feedback for the participants of the points-based system,and a timely recognition of the residents' contribution to the social governance.Deferred rewards are used to stimulate the long-term benefits of positive social behavior,enhancing the stickiness of the points-based system and reducing monitoring costs.The factor analysis of pointing data shows that residents prefer to participate in pointing items related community safety and community environment.This preference indicates that residents have been involved in the supply of public affairs in communities.The pointsbased system establishes the intrinsic link among positive social behavior,public affairs,and social governance goals,which complements the grid and social credit system.Aiming at the “free-riding” problem of the co-construction community,the points-based system defines the positive energy of the community and its actors through the points account,the pointing categories and the pointing items to solve the problem of supplying community affairs.Focusing on the problem of “pretending to act” in the co-governing in communities,the points-based system measures the private costs and social benefits of positive social behavior through pointing behavior and the score to solve the problem of effective participation in community public affairs.Concentrating on the" tragedy of the commons” of the shared communities,the points-based system compensates for the private cost of the positive social behavior actors through the points reward to supply community affairs effectively.The points-based takes over the functions of social service and public affairs supply from units to communities to gather the atomized residents and make them community people.The points-based system links the government,institutions,community organizations,and the Internet into a social governance framework.The government resolves institutional arrangements and provides resource support,and is responsible for the implementation of the system.The system divides and constrains the boundaries of rights and responsibilities of stakeholders;constrains the rights of social governance subjects,prevents power rent-seeking;and constrains the negative behavior of social governance objects,with a positive social atmosphere.The gradual nature of the points system reflects the interaction between administrators,residents,community workers and many other stakeholders,creating and maintaining the technical elements of the system,pointing to the co-evolution of institutions and points related parties.Community-based social organizations with social functions transform isolated individuals into social citizens and develop platforms with common identities,mutual respect,collective will and ability to act together.The combination of the Internet and the points-based system reduces the workload of the system,takes advantage of computers and the Internet,and facilitates social governance with the e-government.This study found that:First,residents' participation in the points-based system is uneven;the pointing items with relatively high participation rate are residents' daily behavior with low participation cost,which are more related to community safety.Secondly,residents coproduce community affairs through points-based system,which may increase residents' concern for their communities and make them more willing to participate in collective efforts;this co-production strengthens the relationship between residents and the government and the community.Thirdly,the scattered residents are jointed by points-based system,building,governing and sharing the communities with the government and community organizations.To expand the effect of the points-based system and improve its sustainability and reproducibility,it is necessary to pay attention to: to scientifically design the functional positioning and development plan;to organize and clarify public resources and their priorities building a reward system for residents' positive social behavior;to create a positive social behavior database for urban and rural communities developing and optimizing application software and service terminals;to develop the commercial value and social value of the residents' positive social behavior database;to clear the job responsibilities of the points-based system management and the ownership of the competent departments;to design indicators for residents' positive social behavior improvement and evaluation incorporating them into the performance appraisal system of grassroots government departments.There are two innovations in this research.Firstly,this study finds the internal mechanism of the points-based system.Aiming at the “free-riding” problem,the pointsbased system defines the positive energy of the community and its actors through the pointing account,pointing categories and items to break the effective supply of community affairs;the points-based system grasps the problem of “indiscriminate filling” in community governance,and measures the private cost and social benefits of positive social behavior through points to break the effective participation of community affairs;the points-based system focuses on the "tragedy of the commons" in the shared community,and compensates for the private costs of positive social actors through the of pointing rewards to break the effective needs of community affairs.Secondly,this study explains the positive social behavior of residents by public product theory,measures the private costs and public benefits of residents' positive social behavior by the cost-benefit theory of economics to guide community residents' positive social behavior.