Research On The Selection Criteria Of Cadres From The Perspective Of Modernization Of State Governance

Modernization of national governance covers modernization in two aspects:governance system and governance capability.The modernization in the both aspects depends on the modernization of human,especially the modernization of cadres,the holder of public power.While a modern country must have a matched contingent of cadres with modernized quality,there must be a certain way to select cadres whose ability meets the requirement of such a modern country.Hence,cadre selection standard is a fundamental issue of "what kind of person to be selected",and a significant issue "concerning long-term interests of the Party and country".if there is no modern selection standard,there will be no modern cadre,and in consequence,no modern national governance capability.Therefore,cadre selection standard shall be analyzed and formulated in terms of the modernization of national governance.Cadre is a widely-used term,but its connotation is not clear.Cadre hereof refers to civil servants in China's political system who,according to law,take leading responsibilities,belong to national administrative establishment,and paid by the national finance.Such civil servants are selected in accordance with strict selection standard.In fact,cadre selection standard was determined by Chinese Communist Party(CPC)based on the culture accumulated in thousands of years,other countries' successful experiences in this field,and revolutionary and construction practices.Such a cadre selection standard has Chinese characteristics,which is different from the cadre(officer)selection standard in traditional Chinese society and modern western countries.It contains two parts:the "core" and the "protective belt".The "core" means the base or the kernel.Any changes of the "core" might change the nature of the whole thing.The "protective belt"represents a series of auxiliary hypothesizes wrapping around and defending the "core",i.e.,"guiding principles".The "protective belt" shall be adjusted timely to ensure enough "openness"of the whole "guiding principles".Although there are different expressions in different times in the evolution process,the mainline of China's cadre selection standard is that cadres shall "possess both virtue and competence while virtue take precedence".This is the "core" of cadre selection standard.In the long-tern revolution,construction and reform practices,CPC has always emphasized this mainline.While the "connotation" remains unchanged,the "protective belt" is continuously adjusted.The evolution of China's cadre selection standard includes the following stages from "appointing people by abilities" and "valuing both virtue and competence","being both socialist-minded and professionally competent","complying with Five Standards" and "Four Modernization policy",to "talents of economic construction",talents conforming with Scientific Outlook on Development,and to "standard of good cadres".In this process,"virtue" and"competence" were also adjusted,especially the change in the weight of "virtue" and"competence",the adjustment of the weight of "social morality" and "personal virtue'",negation of negation from "construction talents" to "social construction talents",and so on.Through incisive thinking,we must ask what promotes such changes.By studying each specific historic stage,we can find that the underlying impetuses are the historical missions of China in different periods and the ruling party's perception of such missions.In short,national mission is the basis of the evolution of cadre selection standard.The historical mission put forward by Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee is the modernization of national governance.To accomplish this mission,the Party Central Committee convened four plenary sessions successively and made necessary arrangements.The 19th National Congress of the CPC further requested to "achieve modernization of national governance system and governance competence" by the middle of the century.Thus,cadre selection standard must obey and serve this mission.This paper adopts the expression of "virtue and competence" in CPC's cadre selection standard and discusses the cadre selection standard which can match to the modernization of national governance.First of all,"virtue" is the soul of an officer.National governance can be regarded as the operation of national public power,and the modernization of national governance in essence is that state power runs on the truck of the public orderly,normatively and efficiently to maximize public interests.Such a process not only all the time but more urgently requires the holder of public power,i.e.,cadres,to have sound official morality.This is because the contradiction between power's nature of people and private execution needs to be compromised by the morality,ubiquitous power discretion needs to be specified by the morality,incompleteness of the"protective belt" of power needs to be supplemented by the morality,inherent deficiencies of bureaucrat needs to be corrected by the morality,and power executor's moral level deeply affects the social-political culture."virtue" matching the modernization of national governance should contain loyalty,obedience to law,justness and honesty.Secondly,"competence" is the basis for an officer.Virtue is not an empty abstraction without any actual contents.It cannot survive without competence.Competence is the basis for virtue.Theoretically,a cadre with stronger competence can better execute duties endowed by public power.However,a person has limited energies.Professions are well differentiated in current days.It is unnecessary and impossible to require each cadre to be an all-rounder.Besides,there shall be differences between cadres in at different levels,on different positions and in different regions.This paper cannot and does not intend to list all specific competences of cadres at different levels,on different positions and in different regions.By removing complications,this paper limits discussions in the general competence of cadres.Socialist cause with Chinese characteristics is an unprecedented and new cause and a new era,and China's national governance is carried out in a highly complicated international and domestic environment.This determines that the "competence"of a cadre should contain learning ability,scientific decision-making ability,exploration and innovation ability and risk management ability.Indeed,in terms of the form,any country in any era requires cadres to have loyalty,obedience to law,justness and honesty in the domain of "virtue" and learning ability,scientific decision-making ability,exploration and innovation ability and risk management ability in the domain of "competence".This is not the sole requirements of the modernization of national governance with Chinese characteristics.However,there are two noteworthy points.On the hand,the modernization of national governance with Chinese governance still belongs to the domain of"national governance".It is the inheritance and development of national governance after the reform and opening-up policy without any interruption or separation.In this sense,the modernization of national governance with Chinese governance must contain some universal factors of national governance.On the other hand,the modernization of national governance with Chinese governance is raised in a new historic period as a positive response to new problems,contradictions and challenges.Hence,it must contain some factors with characteristics of China and this era.The university and particularity of the modernization of national governance with Chinese governance determines that its matching cadre selection standard must contain common factors as well as specific factors of this era.