Elastic Accountability And State Transformation

Workplace Safety is a public goods provided by the state to maintain production order and social rights.Accountability system is the key.Accountability system in Workplace Safety includes leader accountability,territory accountability,department accountability,personnel accountability,enterprise accountability,labor accountability,intermediary organization accountability,etc.These accountability formed differentiated accountability networks in different periods.Accountability model of workplace safety is a highly refined feature of the accountability network.Accountability model of workplace safety in China has been changing,showing that the relationship between power and rights has been adjusted.And it is also a microcosm of China’s modern state construction.The question is that What the path of the evolution of the accountability model is since the founding of New China,What logic behind it is,What significance can get to study the construction of China’s modern state.There are lots of researches on the above issues from the aspects of state system,operational mechanism,regulatory capacity,policy process,and social factors.However,the existing research has neglected the evolution of the relationship between the legislative,judicial and administrative powers in the national governance structure and has not reflected the evolution of accountability model of workplace safety from the perspective of the Chinese party-state structure.Based on the history research since the founding of New China,this study establishes a three-dimensional analysis framework of accountability model: accountability organization,accountability method and responsibility investigation.From the historical perspective,China’s accountability model of workplace safety has experienced three stages of unitization,administralization and publicization.Between 1949 and 1977,especially after 1956,China established a highly overlapping governance structure of the party、government、enterprise、and society.Not only the administrative supervision institutions of the "dual-track system" are lagging behind,the staffing is insufficient,but also the regulatory affairs have become corporate affairs.The accountability method is single and depends on the unit’s own resources and the administrative power is weak.The accountability is lacking in procedural and legalization regulations and the judicial power has not yet institutionalized involvement in regulation.This kind of accountability model of workplace safety has not led to strong and independent administrative,legislative and judicial powers in supervision.The governance structure is unclear and imperfect forming a corporate-centered accountability network.This accountability model is an attempt by the CCP to promotemodernization in the form of revolution.Due to the lack of procedural and institutionalized norms in the national governance process,the rule of law is backward and the country’s capacity is insufficient resulting in high workplace accidents and fluctuations with the political situation.The reform of accountability model of workplace safety after 1978 is actually a process of adjustment of the state governance structure under the background of separation of party and government,government and enterprise,government and society.Under the development strategy of promoting economic growth rapidly,the administrative power has expanded rapidly and is deeply involved in the development of local economy.However,the construction of administrative organizations and staffing and power levels are difficult to meet the regulatory needs in the industrialization process.The way of government supervision is weak and administrative,economic,and social means are limited.Although the legislative has made certain progress and judicial power has also begun to intervene in the investigation of workplace accidents,all of them have limited intervention especially compared with the expansion of administrative power.During this period,a accountability network centered on administrative power was formed and accountability model of workplace safety showed the characteristics of administralization.This makes the workplace safety growth high in the process of rapid economic growth.In the face of high economic development costs and the erosion of regulatory invalidity on the legitimacy of the regime after 2003,the ruling party gradually reformed its development concept,placed more emphasis on safety development and promoted its regulatory capabilities.First,a five-level regulatory organization networks and a full-time supervision team have been established and the supervision capability has been significantly improved.Second,administrative,economic,legal,and social means are used in combination giving full play to the advantages of multiple entities and forming a new network of responsibilities.Third,the intensity of accountability is enhanced,the scope is expanded and the departments are coordinated to improve the operation of the new accountability network.The mobilization and intervention of multiple types of accountability methods have made accountability network go to multiple centers and accountability model has been characterized by publicization.Workplace safety has achieved“double decline”in the number of accidents and deaths for 16 consecutive years since 2003.As a public affairs,the change of accountability mode is the adjustment of the accountability network,that is the change of the power/right-obligation relationship of different subjects.This article refers to the elastic accountability.Elastic accountability refers to the phenomenon that there are differences in the accountability under differentaccountability modes.The historical evolution of the elastic accountability is the rational choice of the country’s core policy makers for China’s modernization.The organizational mission of the CCP and its high political autonomy make it willing and capable to transform the development model and adjust the governance structure.The mechanism of change is to improve the status of legislation and judicial power in the national governance structure and reform of administrative power to enhance government capacity and build a new network of workplace safety.From the perspective of the transition of the accountability mode of workplace safety,China’s governance is from an unbalanced governance structure to a balanced governance structure under the leadership of the CCP.The elastic accountability can be seen as a regulator of the core decision makers of the party and the state in response to the achievements and problems in the modernization process and also the way of the central government to respond to social and market safety requirements.At the same time,the elastic accountability enables the central government to promote the centralized and rapid development of national capacity.China’s unique political party-state structure is the basis for the transformation of the accountability model of workplace safety from unitization to administralization to publicization.It is also the important difference between chinese politics and Western politics.This has shaped the development of China’s unique modern state construction.China’s state governance shows the organic unity of the party’s leadership,the people being the masters of the country and the rule of law.