NGOs And Rule Of Law

Based on the previous dichotomy theory of"state-civil society", the contemporary civil society theory puts forwards the tracheotomy of"state-market-civil society", believing that civil society is the third sector between state sector and economic exchange sector and that NGOs (non-governmental organizations) are kernel element of civil society. NGOs are actually exercising the social power. They have aggregated individual rights, are playing the role of interest expression and communication as well as right maintenance impossibly to be realized by individual social members, enabling the application of the theoretical hypothesis from"constraining power by right"into"constraining power by society"into practice.Especially after the 1970s, NGOs, the concern of the contemporary civil society have developed rapidly globally. And as a social self-organizing force, they provide political participation channels to atomic individuals in market society, which is unaffordable by the market society. At the same time, NGOs have shared the heavy burden of the state rule of law and demonstrated the society dimension of the rule of law by providing effective legal support for the exercise of state legislation and public power through NGOs'rational exchange activities.As to China, the real bottleneck for it to realize the rule of law is lack of social basis. Multi-NGOs and the constructed civil society are conditions of social structure for realizing the rule of law, and they constitute the social basis for the rule of law together with market economy and democratic politics. So developing NGOs is of fundamental significance to construction of the rule of law in China.Nowadays, China has also issued relevant rules, such as Regulations Regarding Registration and Administration of Social Organizations, Interim Regulations Regarding Registration and Administration of Private Non-enterprise Units and Regulations of Registration and Administration of Funds, the general situation is that the legislation is not enough, with more restriction and administration than support, which limits the establishment and development of NGOs. The author believes that the prosperity of NGOs in China poses a challenge to the existing legal system. In consequence, how to further improve laws and regulations governing NGOs and incorporate the management of NGOs into the legal framework is an important issue we face at present. As a response, in order to put forward some suggestions and measures, this article analyzes the existing problems and environment of the Chinese legislation and probes into the improvement of legal construction of NGOs. The measures on how to improve the NGOs legislation conclude that to establish NGOs'recording system, to reform dual management system as well as to confirm financial support and tax subsidization policy on NGOs and so on.In conclusion, the government should not only rule by law and regulations, but also pay respect to the subjective awareness of NGOs. The government should achieve a democratic and lawful society by nurturing mature NGOs, shaping legislative awareness, public spirits and democratic operational skills.