A Study On Predicaments Facing China’s Grassroots Petition Reception And Their Solution

As China enters the third decade of its economic restructuring, the tide of reform has progressed to every corner of the Chinese society. In this context, the social structure and the arrangement of interests are experiencing continuous adjustment, and the social group consciousness and individual thoughts and ideas are undergoing profound change. The friction generated by social reform surfaces in the convergence and conflict between different social groups. Now, the reform has created sustainable driving power for development, but the society is under even higher risk of conflict as it enjoys the bonus provided by the reform. In this transitional period from a traditional society to a more contractual society, the existing legal system failed to comply with the requirement of social development. The existing system’s failure to resolve the enormous conflicts in China’s grassroots society has caused repeated occurrence of "petition waves" and has caused denunciation against and discussions on the petition system. Based on his research and analysis on the predicament in A City’s petition system, the author believes that the petition system has been an important positive factor in solving public disputes, overseeing compliance with the law by governmental agencies and promoting social harmony. The petition system has very important practical value to maintain stability of the society, especially at the present time when conflicts are often seen in the society. But the increasingly complicated forms of conflict have put the petition system into predicament. Therefore, the question as to how the petition system may be progressed further, how the work mechanism may be improved on a continuous basis and how its social efficiency may be improved has become a new subject in the theoretical study of the petition system.Based on the above considerations, this thesis explores the deep-going causes of petition predicament through field survey and case analysis and in combination with theories in social psychology and law, and attempts to summarize the basic pattern of predicament in grassroots petition and further bring forth solutions and recommendations of practical value. In order to improve the quality of petition reception, the government must firstly focus on and understand the need of the people, improve the social security system and perform comprehensive assessment and evaluation on important policy relevant to the interests of the people before their implementation; and it must further establish a new work mechanism for petition reception and reshape the current petition reception arrangement and promote the development of China’s grassroots petition through innovation and development of durable mechanism. Secondly, The relationship between administrative and judicial authorities must be restructured to minimize interference to the justice system by outside factors and to realize judicial independence; the adjudication system should be reformed to realize its authority as a final-resort and to turn into an effective and predominant mechanism in resolving social conflicts. Finally, the institutional arrangement regarding political engagement must be improved and a stable, long-term, rational and continuous chain of political engagement should be established so as to nurture a culture of democratic political engagement and to construct a complete democratic political system as the substantive solution to breakthrough petition predicament. The grassroots petition referred to in this thesis means the petition reception work of prefecture-level cities and their affiliated counties, towns and townships.