A Study Of China's Urban Community Governance System

The word "community" generally refers to a social grouping within asocio-geographic space, which is formed by similar people who share common values,are closely related, help each other, and show sympathy to each other. In promotingcommunity services and community building over the past 20 years, the Chinesegovernment at all levels and their working departments, including experts andscholars, have gradually deepened their understanding and recognition of the contentsof the concept. The author believes it is more practical and feasible to temporarilydefine that the scope of a community is identical to the jurisdiction of a neighborhoodcommittee. This is because the population size, regional scope and functionalallocation of the urban communities in China all determine that it is advisable todefine that the scope of a community is identical to that of a neighborhood committee.After the founding of new China, the country gradually developed amanagement system for urban grass-roots communities, in which the "units" playedthe primary roles and the sub-district offices and neighborhood committees played thesecondary roles in grass-roots regional management. The state managed the staff andworkers through the "units", and managed the idle personnel and the recipients ofcivil relief and special care through the sub-district offices and neighborhoodcommittees. In this way, the state controlled and integrated all the members of urbancommunities, achieved social stability and consolidated political powers. Of course,the prolonged planned economy and the unit-based management system failed toadapt themselves to the requirements of the times and finally produced a series ofnegative consequences. And the system of sub-district offices and neighborhoodcommittees faced many practical problems. For this reason, the reform of the systemof sub-district offices and neighborhood committees was placed on the agenda.Theauthor believes that the following basic guiding principles should be set for the reform of China's urban community governance system. The first is the principle ofupholding administrative leadership. The second is the principle of combining stronggovernment with strong society. The third is the principle of separating consultationfrom execution and advocating professional operation. The fourth is the principle offull grass-roots democracy and participation. In light of the basic principles governingthe community governance system specified in this article, the author envisages thatthe organizational framework of a new community govemance system should be athree-level system. The first is the leadership level. In the community governancesystem, the institutions assuming direct leadership responsibilities are the communityparty committee and the sub-district office. The leading members of the partyorganization can concurrently work in the corresponding leading positions of thesub-district office so as to ensure party-government coordination and unification andensure the party's leadership will not be marginalized in grass-roots communities. Thesecond is the consultation level. The level of consultation mainly comprises theconference of community representatives (community council) and sub-communitycouncil. The third is the operational level, which mainly comprises three players: thesecretariat under the conference of community representatives (community council),the specialized committees under the sub-community council, and the communityworkstations, social groups and non-governmental organizations formed by full-timecommunity workers. In addition to the above three levels, the community governancesystem must have a special supervisory body, which covers all community affairs,such as a civic inspection group, a review group or another similar independentsupervisory body. Its exclusive responsibility is to supervise and review the playersand their activities in the areas of community-level leadership, consultation andexecution, and the community public affairs. Its members must be few and efficientand must all be directly elected by community members.