Legal Thinking On The Neighborhood Committee Autonomy

The neighborhood committee of urban community is the significant way forresidents to exercise autonomy. With the development of democratic construction atgrassroots level, the community self-government and the resident autonomy haveachieved great progress. In this process, the voice of asking the neighborhoodcommittee to truly realize autonomy is becoming louder and louder. Theneighborhood committee is in relation to the realization of social democracy, and italso has significant impact on the development of constitutionalism in China.This survey report aims at finding out the real situation of the currentneighborhood committee autonomy through field investigation and deep interview,including the attitude of the residents and the introduction of the neighborhoodcommittee’s members. And then, analyzing the operation of law in the actual workand proposing some probably effective suggestions on the amendment of relevantlaws.This survey report is composed of six parts.The first part is introduction. This part includes the following aspects: thesummary of study status of the neighborhood committee autonomy, the purpose ofwriting this thesis and the innovation in this thesis.The second part is the overview of the neighborhood committee autonomy. Thispart briefly defines the conceptions of the neighborhood committee autonomy, andthen introduces the significance that neighborhood committee autonomy onpromoting the development process of constitutionalism.The third part is about the current situation of neighborhood committeeautonomy in Guangzhou Liwan district. Through the questionnaire and intensiveinterview, the thesis learns about the deficiency of the neighborhood committeeautonomy, which mainly presents in the following aspects: passive services, stiffmanagement, dependent on finance, insufficient resident participation, and so on. Andit also finds out a strange tendency: even though the residents have misunderstandingson the nature of neighborhood committee, they are still highly willing to participate init.The forth part discusses the obstacles that neighborhood committee autonomyfaces. Firstly, it analyzes the causes of the existing problems neighborhood committee have. The thesis tells that the lack of operability and being rather principle of TheOrganic Law on Urban Residents Committees of the People’s Republic of China isthe fundamental cause. Secondly, the other reasons such as old-fashioned manner ofworking, community affairs fail to arouse attention among the residents, and theresidents’ consciousness of autonomy is not strong enough are also the factors thathinder the neighborhood committee autonomy.The fifth part is the proposals on perfecting the neighborhood committeeautonomy. Systematic and sound legal system is the foundation on truly realizingneighborhood committee autonomy, therefore, the top priority is have laws to go by.According to the contents of the neighborhood committee autonomy, the thesissuggests that The Organic Law on Urban Residents Committees of the People’sRepublic of China be revised from the following four aspects: the confirmation ofcommunity services, the perfection of neighborhood committee election, theperfection of the two levels of the resident meeting, and the confirmation of theindependent financial system. Meanwhile, the thesis also suggests that the nature andcontent of the neighborhood be redefined, the supervision and the ways of relief of theneighborhood be added into the law, and so on. Defining the various provisions of theneighborhood committee is the key guarantee to redefine the role and the function ofneighborhood committee. Therefore, compares with other measures, it is moreimportant to amend The Organic Law on Urban Residents Committee of the People’sRepublic of China. Besides, the other improvement methods, such as the devolutionof power from the government, the cultivation of the quality of the neighborhoodcommittees’members, the improvement in the consciousness of the residents are alsomentioned.The sixth part is the conclusion. This part reaffirms the importance of theperfection of relevant laws to the neighborhood committee autonomy, and points outthe purpose and the limitations of this thesis.