THE MODERNIZATION OF SOCIAL GOVERNANCE AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE SOCIAL GOVERNANCE JURISPRUDENCE
Zhang Wenxian
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. ADVANCING THE RESEARCH OF THREE MAJOR SYSTEMS IN THE SOCIAL GOVERNANCE JURISPRUDENCE IS A NECESSARY REQUIREMENT FOR CONSTRUCTING THE RULE OF LAW IN CHINAII. ADVANCING THE RESEARCH OF THREE MAJOR SYSTEMS IN THE SOCIAL GOVERNANCE JURISPRUDENCE IS A NECESSARY REQUIREMENT FOR CONSTRUCTING THE JURISPRUDENCE WITH CHINESE CHARACTERISTICSIII. PROMOTING THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE SOCIAL GOVERNANCE JURISPRUDENCE BY DEVOTING OURSELVES TO THE INTEGRATION RESEARCH ON LAW, RULE OF LAW AND JURISPRUDENCESocial governance is an integral part of the governance system in today’s China. In 2013, the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) made the Decision of the Central Committee of the CPC on Some Major Issues concerning Comprehensively Deepening the Reform, in which it was proposed that the overall goal of comprehensively deepening reform is to promote the modernization of the national governance system and capacity. In short, the goal is to modernize national governance. At the Central Political and Legal Work Conference five years later, General Secretary Xi Jinping also proposed to modernize social governance. The modernization of national governance and that of social governance are mutually reinforcing, which will significantly improve the socialism with Chinese characteristics and the governance of the Party and the country. The Central Committee of the CPC with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core strives to modernize social governance and accelerates efforts to build China into a socialist country governed by the rule of law. On July 6, 2019, against this backdrop, it is of great importance for us to gather in Wuhan, the City of Rivers, to discuss important theoretical issues of social governance and explore how to construct law discipline and train capable people in the way of combining practice and theory, so as to provide academic support and intellectual support in achieving the goal that the rule of law for the country, the government and the society, and the modernization of state and society governance are basically in place by the year 2035. On behalf of the China Law Society’s academic committee, I wish to extend a warm welcome to the participants around the country and foreign experts who have come all the way to join this event and heartfelt thanks to the teachers and students for their exceptional efforts to ensure the event is held successfully. I also want to express my sincere congratulations to Professor Xu Hanming and on the new and encouraging progress made by the the Ministry of Education’s Innovative Research Team for Advancing Law-based Social Governance led by him and express his admiration to the team led by Professor Xu Hanming, Professor Yao Li, Professor Fang Shirong and Professor Chen Baifeng, for their efforts to study the social governance jurisprudence, promote the construction of the three major systems of the social governance jurisprudence and build consensus.Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, especially since the decision on comprehensive deepening reform was put forward at the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee and the strategy of comprehensively advancing the rule of law was laid out at the Fourth Plenary Session, governance has become a hot word in our political lives, lives where the rule of law applies and academic researches. Political and theoretical propositions focusing on governance emerge in large numbers. Party and state leaders have delivered many strategic and significant speeches focusing on party governance, state governance, social governance, network governance and global governance and modernization of governance. In academic circles, many innovative works and research reports on these subjects have been published. New and encouraging progress has been made in researches on governance. All these achievements provide a wide range of theoretical resources and practical experience for the social governance jurisprudence. I would like to share some of his views on the construction of the three major systems of the social governance jurisprudence.
I. ADVANCING THE RESEARCH OF THREE MAJOR SYSTEMS IN THE SOCIAL GOVERNANCE JURISPRUDENCE IS A NECESSARY REQUIREMENT FOR CONSTRUCTING THE RULE OF LAW IN CHINA
As the lifeblood and main task for promoting the rule of law in China, the requirement of comprehensively advancing the law-based governance of China and working faster to build China into a rule of law country is a major strategic task for improving the socialist rule of law system with Chinese characteristics, improving and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics, and modernizing state and social governance. It is also a historic task for developing the socialist rule of law civilization and political civilization. It was stated at the Third and Fourth Plenary Sessions of the 18th CPC Central Committee that in order to explore new ways to conduct social governance, we should improve methods of social governance, uphold law-based governance, strengthen legal guarantees, defuse social tensions by using ideas and methods based on the rule of law, and improve the modernization of social governance. In the process of exploring new ways to conduct social governance, there is not only the synergy between social governance theories and the ideas and methods based on the rule of law, but also the reflection and breakthrough of the current legal discipline system, and also the study and learning of foreign social governance modes. All of these problems need to be responded to and solved through the social governance jurisprudence.After the evolution of the principal contradiction facing Chinese society in the new era, new stage-specific characteristics emerge in social governance, which can be summarized as the following: (1) traditional governance mechanisms and systems are no longer suited to accelerated economic and social modernization; (2) some lagging laws and regulations fail to match up with our efforts to comprehensively deepen economic, political, cultural, and social reform as well as reform pertaining to ecological progress; (3) the contradiction between the reform to delegate power and inadequate market mechanisms as well as immature social organizations; (4) the contradiction between the doctrine of the supremacy of law and acquaintance society as well as hidden rules; (5) the contradiction between the requirements for strict law enforcement, impartial administration of justice and different legal literacy of enforcement and judicial personnel; (6) the contradiction between the awakening of people’s rights consciousness and inadequate ability to rationally safeguard their rights; (7) the contradiction between people’s increasing demands for relief of public power and lower trust in authority; (8) the contradiction between the requirements for strict punishment of illegal acts and the low cost for law breakers while the high cost for the law-abiding; (9) the contradiction between complex, unique social issues and simple, inefficient responses; (10) the inconsistency between the requirement that the law is observed by everyone and the reality that the key few leads the way in observing the law; (11) the contradiction that a top-level design for social governance is not in line with practices across the country; (12) the contradiction that governance systems and governance institutions are not well matched; and (13) the contradiction between the deepening practice of social governance and a shortage of social governance theories. One of the important reasons for these problems is that China’s social development lags behind its economic development and social governance lags behind social development. Inadequate law-based social governance has become the weakness affecting the achievement of the goal to holistically build a country, a government and a society where the rule of law applies. It is imperative for the scholars in the theoretic and practical fields of legal research and legal education circles to apply a systematic, comprehensive and disciplinary study on law-based social governance and provide systematic theoretical guidance for exploring new forms of social governance.In recent years, scholars in various branches of law and adjacent disciplines of law (such as sociology, politics, management, economics) have studied social governance and achieved many research results, which need to be systematically reviewed and integrated into a theoretical framework. Fragmentation of research results in the above disciplines can be integrated into a logical theoretical and academic system through the construction of the social governance jurisprudence. Therefore, it is imperative for us to build the social governance jurisprudence, facilitate the development of the three major systems of the social governance jurisprudence so as to foster talents for law-based social governance, advance law-based social governance, strengthen public participation and rule of law in social governance, and make such governance smarter and more specialized under the background of the Internet, promote the modernization of social governance, build a law-governed society, and turn China into a great modern socialist country.
THE MODERNIZATION OF SOCIAL GOVERNANCE AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE SOCIAL GOVERNANCE JURISPRUDENCE
Zhang Wenxian
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. ADVANCING THE RESEARCH OF THREE MAJOR SYSTEMS IN THE SOCIAL GOVERNANCE JURISPRUDENCE IS A NECESSARY REQUIREMENT FOR CONSTRUCTING THE RULE OF LAW IN CHINAII. ADVANCING THE RESEARCH OF THREE MAJOR SYSTEMS IN THE SOCIAL GOVERNANCE JURISPRUDENCE IS A NECESSARY REQUIREMENT FOR CONSTRUCTING THE JURISPRUDENCE WITH CHINESE CHARACTERISTICSIII. PROMOTING THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE SOCIAL GOVERNANCE JURISPRUDENCE BY DEVOTING OURSELVES TO THE INTEGRATION RESEARCH ON LAW, RULE OF LAW AND JURISPRUDENCESocial governance is an integral part of the governance system in today’s China. In 2013, the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) made the Decision of the Central Committee of the CPC on Some Major Issues concerning Comprehensively Deepening the Reform, in which it was proposed that the overall goal of comprehensively deepening reform is to promote the modernization of the national governance system and capacity. In short, the goal is to modernize national governance. At the Central Political and Legal Work Conference five years later, General Secretary Xi Jinping also proposed to modernize social governance. The modernization of national governance and that of social governance are mutually reinforcing, which will significantly improve the socialism with Chinese characteristics and the governance of the Party and the country. The Central Committee of the CPC with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core strives to modernize social governance and accelerates efforts to build China into a socialist country governed by the rule of law. On July 6, 2019, against this backdrop, it is of great importance for us to gather in Wuhan, the City of Rivers, to discuss important theoretical issues of social governance and explore how to construct law discipline and train capable people in the way of combining practice and theory, so as to provide academic support and intellectual support in achieving the goal that the rule of law for the country, the government and the society, and the modernization of state and society governance are basically in place by the year 2035. On behalf of the China Law Society’s academic committee, I wish to extend a warm welcome to the participants around the country and foreign experts who have come all the way to join this event and heartfelt thanks to the teachers and students for their exceptional efforts to ensure the event is held successfully. I also want to express my sincere congratulations to Professor Xu Hanming and on the new and encouraging progress made by the the Ministry of Education’s Innovative Research Team for Advancing Law-based Social Governance led by him and express his admiration to the team led by Professor Xu Hanming, Professor Yao Li, Professor Fang Shirong and Professor Chen Baifeng, for their efforts to study the social governance jurisprudence, promote the construction of the three major systems of the social governance jurisprudence and build consensus.Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, especially since the decision on comprehensive deepening reform was put forward at the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee and the strategy of comprehensively advancing the rule of law was laid out at the Fourth Plenary Session, governance has become a hot word in our political lives, lives where the rule of law applies and academic researches. Political and theoretical propositions focusing on governance emerge in large numbers. Party and state leaders have delivered many strategic and significant speeches focusing on party governance, state governance, social governance, network governance and global governance and modernization of governance. In academic circles, many innovative works and research reports on these subjects have been published. New and encouraging progress has been made in researches on governance. All these achievements provide a wide range of theoretical resources and practical experience for the social governance jurisprudence. I would like to share some of his views on the construction of the three major systems of the social governance jurisprudence.
I. ADVANCING THE RESEARCH OF THREE MAJOR SYSTEMS IN THE SOCIAL GOVERNANCE JURISPRUDENCE IS A NECESSARY REQUIREMENT FOR CONSTRUCTING THE RULE OF LAW IN CHINA
As the lifeblood and main task for promoting the rule of law in China, the requirement of comprehensively advancing the law-based governance of China and working faster to build China into a rule of law country is a major strategic task for improving the socialist rule of law system with Chinese characteristics, improving and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics, and modernizing state and social governance. It is also a historic task for developing the socialist rule of law civilization and political civilization. It was stated at the Third and Fourth Plenary Sessions of the 18th CPC Central Committee that in order to explore new ways to conduct social governance, we should improve methods of social governance, uphold law-based governance, strengthen legal guarantees, defuse social tensions by using ideas and methods based on the rule of law, and improve the modernization of social governance. In the process of exploring new ways to conduct social governance, there is not only the synergy between social governance theories and the ideas and methods based on the rule of law, but also the reflection and breakthrough of the current legal discipline system, and also the study and learning of foreign social governance modes. All of these problems need to be responded to and solved through the social governance jurisprudence.After the evolution of the principal contradiction facing Chinese society in the new era, new stage-specific characteristics emerge in social governance, which can be summarized as the following: (1) traditional governance mechanisms and systems are no longer suited to accelerated economic and social modernization; (2) some lagging laws and regulations fail to match up with our efforts to comprehensively deepen economic, political, cultural, and social reform as well as reform pertaining to ecological progress; (3) the contradiction between the reform to delegate power and inadequate market mechanisms as well as immature social organizations; (4) the contradiction between the doctrine of the supremacy of law and acquaintance society as well as hidden rules; (5) the contradiction between the requirements for strict law enforcement, impartial administration of justice and different legal literacy of enforcement and judicial personnel; (6) the contradiction between the awakening of people’s rights consciousness and inadequate ability to rationally safeguard their rights; (7) the contradiction between people’s increasing demands for relief of public power and lower trust in authority; (8) the contradiction between the requirements for strict punishment of illegal acts and the low cost for law breakers while the high cost for the law-abiding; (9) the contradiction between complex, unique social issues and simple, inefficient responses; (10) the inconsistency between the requirement that the law is observed by everyone and the reality that the key few leads the way in observing the law; (11) the contradiction that a top-level design for social governance is not in line with practices across the country; (12) the contradiction that governance systems and governance institutions are not well matched; and (13) the contradiction between the deepening practice of social governance and a shortage of social governance theories. One of the important reasons for these problems is that China’s social development lags behind its economic development and social governance lags behind social development. Inadequate law-based social governance has become the weakness affecting the achievement of the goal to holistically build a country, a government and a society where the rule of law applies. It is imperative for the scholars in the theoretic and practical fields of legal research and legal education circles to apply a systematic, comprehensive and disciplinary study on law-based social governance and provide systematic theoretical guidance for exploring new forms of social governance.In recent years, scholars in various branches of law and adjacent disciplines of law (such as sociology, politics, management, economics) have studied social governance and achieved many research results, which need to be systematically reviewed and integrated into a theoretical framework. Fragmentation of research results in the above disciplines can be integrated into a logical theoretical and academic system through the construction of the social governance jurisprudence. Therefore, it is imperative for us to build the social governance jurisprudence, facilitate the development of the three major systems of the social governance jurisprudence so as to foster talents for law-based social governance, advance law-based social governance, strengthen public participation and rule of law in social governance, and make such governance smarter and more specialized under the background of the Internet, promote the modernization of social governance, build a law-governed society, and turn China into a great modern socialist country.
