| |
China’s Leadership in World Harmony 2010 JINING, Shandong - A statue highlighting an upcoming dialogue between the world's two predominant civilizations, Confucianism and Christianity, is to be erected in the birthplace of China's great philosopher, Confucius, as a monument to the Chinese people's growing initiatives in the new century to engage with overseas civilizations. Zhang Xiao'an, vice-president of the United Nations Association of China, called the monument "a new landmark" in the Nishan Mountain, the Confucian holy land boasting ancient cultural heritage sites under state protection such as the Confucius Temple and Nishan Academy. He made the comments while speaking at a press conference here on Saturday. Some 35 kilometers to the southeast of Qufu in East China's Shandong province, the mountain will be the venue for the opening ceremony of the first Nishan Forum on World Civilization on Monday (September 27, 2010), morning. Zhang said that domestic and overseas scholars would draw upon the wisdom of ancient sages Confucius and Jesus, who lived more than 2,000 years ago, to broaden the possibilities for peaceful solutions of daily living issues while the forum will climax with the issue of the Nishan Declaration of Harmony. "The declaration will be the first of its kind on human harmony in the world and a significant achievement of the first Nishan forum," said the executive director of the Presidium of the Forum's Organization Committee. According to Zhang, the monument, about 9.6 meters long and 1.5 meters high, will be unveiled Monday morning in the square at the Shengyuan Academy of Nishan, where Robert Schuller, the Crystal Cathedral's founding pastor from California, USA, will open the forum's first dialogue with Chinese scholars to discuss human crisis and dialogue between civilizations. On Wednesday (September 29, 2010), more than 170 people, including former national leaders of Indonesia and Hungary, local Confucian scholars, Buddhists, Taoists as well as more than 30 foreign scholars and Christian personalities from the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Australia, Japan, the Republic of Korea and Thailand, will exchange thoughts during 14 topical seminars to explore the way toward a harmonious world with diversified cultures. With its preparation work started almost three years ago, the forum crystallized the initiatives of the Chinese people to facilitate the communications between civilizations at a significant historical period, Zhang said. To call on the world to quicken the rapprochement of cultures, secretary-general of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon warned in a message to the world earlier this year that the globe was beset by prejudice, hatred and unresolved challenges. "Often, extremists demonize other cultures and traditions, and target them for violence. And at this time of economic turmoil, when there are fewer jobs to go around, people often blame minorities," said Ban Ki-moon. Zhang said that the forum was "a solemn commitment of China in fulfilling the UN's initiative to facilitate dialogues among civilizations". "In this academic, non-governmental, open and international event, participants are welcome to share their disparities and utter different voices," said Zhang. In one seminar, for instance, participants are expected to explore alternative solutions under the influence of Confucianism-Christianity dialogues. According to the schedule, participants are also encouraged to examine the moral deficiency, excessive material desires and other pernicious habits in the two civilized cultures which run counter to ancient sages' doctrines and brainstorm on how to enhance human flourishing for the world's six billion population in peace and harmony. Dwight N. Hopkins, professor of theology at the University of Chicago, passionately examined the common points between Confucianism and Christian civilizations in his thesis. "To understand the tradition of the West, one must engage Christianity. Likewise, to appreciate the rich heritage of China, one is obligated to take seriously the way of life of Confucianism...At the dawn of the 21st century, we have ample ethical and cultural resources from the East and the West to forge together a more peaceful, prosperous, and harmonious world," he wrote. 26/09/10 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dear Lana, Many thanks for your very valuable information that I published under the title "China’s Leadership in World Harmony 2010" on our site "Peace from Harmony": . It confirms once again that China, since 2006, with the proclamation of building a harmonious society in the country, holds the position of global leader in world harmony, and now aims for harmony of Christian and Chinese (Confucian) civilizations, i.e, almost for the two-thirds of humanity. Chinese Harmony Forum September 27-29 is another fact of a birth of a harmonious civilization. This Forum was ahead the Forum in Astana, which has the same focus on the harmonious civilization and its new spiritual culture. But both of those forums are the necessary steps of becoming a harmonious civilization, which moves in different ways towards one common goal of global social harmony. GHA can only admire these facts, which confirm our prediction for this civilization and for a new historical trend of global harmonization. We all see that such events are increasing with the acceleration of a snowball. In it appears rapid growth of a harmonious civilization, born in 2009 on the GHA definition. Of course, a great pity that the Chinese organizers of the Nishan Forum do not know GHA and its "Universal Declaration of Harmonious Civilization" 2009 (http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=383), which is the first declaration of "human harmony in the world." Therefore, the Declaration of Nishan Forum is the second after the GHA Declaration (July 2009). Could you please send this information to the organizers of the Nishan Forum? Or: could you tell me of email Zhang Xiao'an, vice-president of the United Nations Association of China? We would be very grateful for this information. This will allow the Chinese Forum of Harmony to enrich by the GHA projects of global harmony. Leo 26/09/10 ---------------------------------------------- Dear Mr. Liu Xiaocheng, I am very guilty before you, that I detained my response you on 12 days. Please, excuse me. It was very difficult time for me: I was fully engaged in preparation and discussion with my foreign friends (more than 200) the Statutes of new International organization, which we create: Global Harmony Association. Besides I was sick. I also much thought how to make your page on our site. Recently I received from you a delightful gift with a kit of materials about your unique troupe. I looked one and with the wife and with my friends your brilliant books and disks. All of us were in delight from creativity of your incomparable, sole in the world troupe. I very highly appreciate your work and very grateful you for your generous gift and for your kind words. I am also very grateful you for the invitation to visit troupe, but in December and January I can not on many reasons: operation of the wife, a lot of work on the site and with the new Association etc. I hope I can visit you later, if you invite us with the wife. I shall be happy to cooperate with you. I am admired with aspiration of China, including your troupe, to a harmonious society. We share with you one aspiration to this society, to which I devoted my international site "Peace from Harmony" (www.peacefromharmony.org) and which for three years united more than 240 scientists and artists from 39 countries of the world and is published in 17 languages. I am 66, the social philosopher, who devoted to scientific understanding of harmony more than 30 years. My mission is collection from all world of the information about harmony and its synthesis in my books and on the site to make harmony accessible for children and youth of the world. Now let my concrete offers and actions, on which you inspired me. 1. I shall publish on our site your three minute video-roller with the reference to your site: www.mydream.org.cn and your email: mydream@cdpf.org.cn. Do you permit it? 2. I shall publish on our site main page in a line of varying images of harmony your Tai Lihua with 42 hands. 3. I want to create on our site a separate page of your troupe with such about title: "Liu Xiaocheng: harmonious society of the children disabled troupe in China". This title is your excellent words from your letter: "the disabled children in the troupe where I feel harmonious society". But you can edit this title, change it, add in it the names of your chiefs: Wang Honghai or Pufang Deng or Jigang Zhang (I am do not mistaken?) etc. I shall welcome all your changes. But I want that in it my two favourite words were kept: harmony and children. on this page I want to publish some texts and photos from your brochure: "Welcome to our beautiful world with disabilities. My dream." Do you permit to publish it on our site? I shall do it at first in English, and then we can make this page in other languages of our site. As you understand it is the very large and laborious work, which will require the help of many assistants and translators. The creation of the English page, which should not be translated, will require the USD400-700. Translation it on other languages: Russian, French, Spanish etc. will require in addition the USD200-500. The prices for translation of different languages are different. In Russia the translation price of a standard page (1800 marks with blanks) change in limits from 20 up to 40 USdollars. 4. I want to offer you (your Federation and/or your Troupe) in future (in the beginning of the next year) to become co-founder of the Global Harmony Association, which first project will be creation of the World Academy of Harmony. In it you could create the Department with such approximate title: "Harmonious art troupe for the disabled children/youth of the world". For each country of the world you could prepare on one troupe, similar to you, for the appropriate payment of governments of these countries. If you are interested with this idea, I could send you the Statutes of our Association and in more details discuss the project of Academy in the future. 5. If the cooperation with our Association is interesting for you I offer you enter its Board. 6. If you want, I could help you to bring your remarkable troupe in St.-Petersburg on the concert tour. I have some more offers of cooperation for you, but let while to be limited by these. Please, look our site: www.peacefromharmony.org and the page about Beijing Cultural Forum, on which I was in July 2007: http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=295. The best harmony wishes, Dr Leo Semashko: 27/11/07 ----------------------------------------------------------- Dear Dr. Leo Semashko, Thank you for your prompt reply. I am a man of efficiency. I have not thought that you replied so quickly. I really appreciate you and thank you very much. I really appreciate the idea of harmony in your book. We have the common wish to pursue a harmonious society. We would like to cooperate with you in this aspect. We will send you a kit of materials of our troupe for your better understanding us, including a DVD of our film which has not been publicly distributed (note: please do not link it to internet), some books in English, Chinese and Japanese. We will produce new books at the end of this year. I am 63. I used to be the leader of Ministerial level in charge of the work for disabled people in China. I quitted the job and began to stay with the disabled children in the troupe where I feel harmonious society. The aim of our troupe is to let more and more people understand the human diversity. We would like you to open a separate page for us in you website. Please send us your website address for our reference. Could you please tell us how much it will cost for translation, say how much per thousand words? If you are have time after December 5th, we welcome you to visit our troupe. We provide you the accommodation. Best wishes, Liu Xiaocheng Vice Chairman of China Disabled Person’s Federation Adviser of China Disabled People’s Performing Art Troupe 15/11/07 ------------------------------------------------- ----- Original Message ----- From:Leo Semashko To:ystwlb@sina.com Subject:Re[4]: Gratitudes Date:07-11-01 19:00:37 Dear Mr. President Liu Xiaocheng CDPPAT,, Thank you very much for your kind response. I looked your wonderful site and admired as in China the disabled people are capable to build the harmonious and happy world. I am very grateful you for your great contribution to harmony of the world. I shall be happy to publish on our site your 3 minute clip of your film My Dream and link your site to our site. We also could open for you separate page with text translation on Russian and other languages of our site (our site is published in 17 languages). But this very large work of our experts, which require payments. If you have opportunity of its payment, we could discuss this question separately. My Address: Dr Leo Semashko, 7/4-42 Ho-Shi-Min Street, St. Petersburg 194356, Russia. Tel +7 (812) 513-3863 Best harmony wishes, Dr Leo Semashko: ----------------------------------------------------- Dear Dr. Leo Semashko, I am writing on behalf of Ms. Rosa Dalmiglio. We are China Disabled People’s Performing Art Troupe. Yesterday, Ms. Rosa Dalmiglio visited our troupe and introduced you, your achievement, and your website and presented your books to Mr. Liu Xiaocheng, the Adviser of our troupe, and other leaders in the troupe. We fully support your career for harmony for the world. If we have opportunity, we would like to involve in the career. If you want to know more about us, please visit our website www.mydream.org.cn . You may link our website to your website. Rosa told us you hope to put some visual materials on your website. We can provide you a 3minute clip of our film My Dream co-produced by China Disabled People’s Performing Art Troupe and Beijing Film Academy. We want to send you some materials from our side by post. Please give us your postal address and telephone number. The letter written by Rosa is attacged. Best wishes, China Disabled People’s Performing Art Troupe. China Disabled People’s Performing Art Troupe Tel: +86-10-84637907 Fax: +86-10-84637919 01/11/07 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear board and members of IFLAC and Peace from Harmony, Already in 2005 helping to promote world peace, China introduced the concept of the "harmony of society" to law professionals from more than 60 countries attending an international law conference in Beijing.
More than 1,500 delegates gathered in the past two days for the 22nd Congress on the Law of the World. A new session will start today in Shanghai.
The theme of the congress is known as "The Rule of Law and Harmony of International Society," which was suggested by Chinese delegates, according to Xiao Yang, chief grand judge of China.
Xiao said that China advocates harmony of the international society in order to safeguard peace in the world.
Harmony is the precondition and basis for peace, while conflicts and disputes will occur with the lack of harmony, said Xiao, also president of the Supreme People's Court.
Chinese have been familiar with the concept of "harmony of society" since the Communist Party of China introduced the phrase last fall.
President Hu Jintao described a harmonious society as one featuring fairness, justice, and democracy, rule of law, stability and vigour.
Realizing the rule of law in the world and building a harmonious international society should depend on the joint efforts of the legal professionals, said Xiao.
"Communication among the legal professionals of the countries all over the world should be strengthened, so as to realize common development and progress. I believe the Congress will further the communication in the legal field and promote the progress of the world's rule of law," Xiao said.<<<<< With harmonious wishes – Michael Holmboe
16/10/07 --------------------------- Liu Zhongqi and Pan Hongyan NGOs and Civil Society under the Context of Harmonious Community Construction: Practice and Review of China Abstract Since the mid 1980’s, the issue of community construction in China has been put on the agenda for governments of various levels. The shift from community service to community construction witness the development of community management as well as the Chinese social reform. The harmonious community construction has become the cornerstone for social reform, and also an important practice to Chinese harmonious society. In the future social and economic frame, the grass-root level self-government organizations, community organizations, social organizations will contribute to most nongovernmental, nonprofit social institutions. Neither is it a sheer governmental behavior, nor is a sheer civil activity. The community construction consists of various community actors and community forces. The process is a trinity of the government, nongovernmental organizations and the residents. The nongovernmental organizations, especially the voluntary and self-governmental organizations, will promote the participatory democracy in the community management. The cultivation of nongovernmental organizations and the self-governmental institutions would be translated into the future government management pattern of Chinese society. Key Words: nongovernmental organization, harmonious community construction, civil society 1. Since the mid 1980’s, the issue of community construction in China has been put on the agenda for governments of various levels. Since 1996, most of the large cities in China have witnessed an extraordinary fashion of community construction, which is followed by a relatively amazing passion. The Shanghai Municipal Government, which acted as the bull werther, put forward the reform scenario concluded as “Bi-level government with tri-level administration” in the Shanghai Municipal City Work Meeting, and later that scenario was readjusted as “Bi-level government with tri-level administration and quadruple-level networks” in 1998, therefore, Shanghai initiated the reform of the city administration system. In the end of 1998, Beijing and Guangzhou put the assumption that the work of neighborhood administration system was the essential issue for the promotion of the city administration by modern means [1]. Both the community service in the elementary period and the community construction of the present period reveal the deepening of our comprehension of the community issue in China, as well as that of the social reform in China. The construction of harmonious community should be linked with the social reform in China. At present, the harmonious community construction has functioned as the starting point of the general social reform in China, even an important move towards the construction of a harmonious society in China. In Hu Jie’s points of view, community is the basic organizational form of civil society, which includes three meanings [2]: first of all, community is the structural base for civil society, and locality is an important feature of a community, but the common value views are crucial to a community, which has raised so much attention gradually, only to lead the emergence of spiritual community and mental community, such as associations and league. From this point, civil society is composed of communities of various forms. Second, community is the origin of energy for civil society; on the contrary, work unit is the basic organizational form in the traditional planned economy society in China. In civil society, work unit has gradually transformed into as a workplace, only to make the position of a community more and more obvious. The entire citizen activities operate in the society level, and a citizen’s interests is liked to the community closely. In addition, community is an important political resource for the civil society. In civil society, community woks as the footstone for the regime construction, therefore, becomes an important part of the state regime frame. The competition and development of various political forces embark on from the community. The major work areas for the NGOs are social grass roots, to serve the common people, esp. the social groups in disadvantage, therefore, the self-help commonalties and community organizations will become the most important relying forces for the common people. Both the self-help commonalties and community organizations are non-profit organizations, therefore, they share the similarity with the NGOs in this point. Since the 1990’s, along with the deepening of China’s reform and open-up as well as the gradual expanding of the social and economic activities, there has emerged a more and more urgent need for both the self-help commonalties and community organizations, which were established one by one automatically or guided and supported by the government. In the future social and economic system frame in China, self-help commonalties, community organizations and social organizations will be the important organizational forms of a non-governmental and non-profit social system [3]. The reform and open-up enhance the democratization process of social administration, only to provide the community organizations with a more and more important in the management and administration of the social public affairs, displaying more and more powerful vitality. The upsurge of the harmonious community construction is the first wakeup of a democratic, independent and autonomous participation into the administration for the city people in China. The consequence of the call for self-interests is as follows: after the shift from work unit to individual in terms of interest actor, the shift from tradition to modernity in terms of cities, and the shift from control to service in terms of administration, the government will transform itself actively to seek after the new conjunctive point among work unit, citizen and government. The government will give more and more power to those communities that are liked to the citizens more closely, and readjust the city administration system actively. The emerging “citizens” and “citizenship” in the cities make the real sense. The individuals that detached from the work unit come to express their concerns over the municipal issues related to their individual interests. At the grass-root level, the “civil society organizations” has emerged as the cluster of individual’s comprehensive interests. At the medium level, government-background NGOs evolved from the neighborhood committees and street offices are organizing all kinds of activities, providing all sorts of services and setting the norm for the appropriate behavior by strengthening the interactions and mutual help between individual citizen, to cultivate the modern citizen awareness such as participation, environmental protection, and common virtues [4]. The harmonious community construction is neither a simple governmental action nor a simple civil activity; rather it is a process which involves various community actors and community forces. In the whole process of the harmonious community construction, government, the NGOs and residents are a trinity, which is combined to closely to separate from it. The government will operate the macro leading of the harmonious community construction, and set up the plans for it; the NGOs will act as the runner and organizer for the harmonious community construction, working as a bridge between the government and the residents, which are the important carrier to separate the government from the public affairs; the residents are the base for the harmonious community construction, and their wills are the fundamental driving force for the enhancement of harmonious community construction. In the harmonious community construction, the NGOs’ participation into the community affairs can facilitate the development towards modernization and professionalization for the harmonious community construction; it also can realize the NGOs’ functions fully to encourage the residents to participate into the distribution of the community resources and construct it hand by hand. The NGOs’ participation into the community affairs, esp. the development of those voluntary and self-rule organizations, provides a practical approach for the broadening of the resident participation and the promotion of democratic politics in community administration [5]. 2. Along with the reform in fields such as enterprise system, housing system, social security system and medical care system gradually in China, the interests have been separated from the their work units for most of the resident, rather these systems are more and more professional. The residents’ committees and villagers’ committees established among urban and rural residents are typical Chinese community organizations. In terms of public security, environment and sanitation, the reconciliation of conflicts and disputes, family plan, and the administration of the migrant residents, the community enjoys an advantage rather than the government. The community members participate into the cultural, medical, sports and sciences activities in the community, advocate a civilized and healthy lifestyle, and construct the community culture, therefore, they are the most important relying factors for the spiritual culture construction. Based on the common needs, with the characteristics of self-administration, self-development, and self-service, the members of these communities manage the community affairs by means of the social groups, the NGOs and volunteer’s organizations within these communities, which displaying the features of by all members, for all members, and of all members. With the promotion of the citizens’ capability to manage the social affairs, the tight tensions between governments and the public because of the complex public affairs can be mitigated. The construction and development of the harmonious community facilitate the promotion of the residents’ life quality, encourage the members to help each other, strengthen the defense and management abilities of the community, and nurture the community sense and social responsibility. In those countries with mature community development, the governmental administration is relatively neutral. Governments set up the policies and rules for the community development, while the administration within the community itself is exercised by itself [6]. The harmonious community construction provides the construction of civil society in China with a fine opportunity. The fundamental target for the community construction is to establish modern civil society; viz. the skeleton administration form in cities in China conformed to the democratic politics and market economy system. In addition to the governmental forces in the harmonious community construction, a powerful civil society is needed to shoulder the enormous social affairs, which can promote the development of the Chinese society and encourage the city community in China to realize self-rule gradually [7]. The development of civil society in China is a long and hard process, and there is a long way ahead. But starting with the NGOs’ participation into the community affairs, there is no denying the fact that the harmonious community construction in China is a perfect cut-in point into the construction of civil society in China. Meanwhile, civil society will pay much attention to the harmonious community construction. The organization, system and ideas of civil society are necessary to the harmonious community construction, and will put positive influences upon it. The NGOs, as the nuclear elements in civil society, can play an important role in the harmonious community construction. The connotation of the harmonious community construction is the withdrawal of government forces from the communities. The government consciously cultivates all kinds of community organizations to shoulder the responsibility of community management, which are civil-society-based and self-governing. From the reform and change within the city community administration forms, we can conclude that in the market economy system, the city governments should realized the importance of civil society rather than get out of the social affairs or leave all of these affairs to market, esp. in the condition of the wakeup of the citizens in China. Under the condition that the governments respect the citizens’ interests, they should link the interests of various parties together to establish an organized and systematic community administration network and diverse cooperative partnership relations, so that we can set up a new democratic community administration form. Then we can combine various interests groups together along with the sought for community interests. In the process of a new readjustment and combination, governments can exercise its guidance, reconciliation, organization and service by those media groups’ participation into the communities to realize the community reconstruction, by means of the separating government from public affairs and the separating government from social affairs [8]. According to Juergen Habermas, the healthy development of the autonomous and non-political social organisms is the way to get out of the legitimacy crisis for the contemporary capitalist countries. In some sense, that means the re-design of a society. Habermas’ scenario to cure the legitimacy crisis for the contemporary capitalist countries enlightens the project of civil society in China. The construction of a civil society in China is an interactive process between the state and the civil society. on one hand, the state should withdraw from the social, economic fields to change the government function along with its headway for reform; on the other hand, the social actors should take the advantage of the reform, organize the NGOs, and press ahead the construction of civil society from the bottom. This process rushes into the economic field at first and then gradually into the public fields. The social members participate into and influence the state decision-making with the assistance of the NGOs, and develop a benign dynamic relation with the state [9]. The combination between the NGOs’ participation into the community affairs and the civil society will push the social reforms in China effectively, and these two factors will supplement each other and facilitate each other mutually. The democratization process in China will have to start from the grass roots, therefore, the democracy construction in the residents’ committees and villagers’ committees established among urban and rural residents are grassroots democracy and grassroots politics with China’s characteristics, which displays profound meanings for the social development in China. We must pay enough attention to the western countries’ social experiences. In the western market economy society, generally speaking, there is no community government, but the community is the base for the state regime and the basic work unit for the state politics. Therefore, each political force pays much attention to the unique but indispensable political resources within the communities. The NGOs’ participation into the harmonious community construction will provide China’s political from-bottom-to-top reform with a special notion. The comprehensive public social participation is the essence for civil society and harmonious community construction, as well as one of its terminal aims. The harmonious community construction can promote the participation passion among the general public, realize the self-rule of the communities through the comprehensive participation of the public, facilitate the harmonious community construction in turn, and enhance the establishment and development of civil society to play a positive role in China’s social reforms [10]. 3. The vitalization of civil society brings many influences to China’s social, political and economic life, changes the condition of social administration to some extent, improves the good administration of the society, and is very important for the citizen’s political participation, political publicity, self-rule, probity and effectiveness, and the democratization and scientification. Game theory proposes that everybody can enjoy the public goods such as pure air and secure neighborhood, regardless of their contribution. Therefore, generally speaking, nobody has the intention to provide the public goods of this kind, only to find that few people are likely to produce them [11]. This is the paradox within a collective act, which takes the meaning that non-cooperation is a kind of balance faced with public goods. Through the case study of community autonomous administration in Haishu District, Ningbo City, Chen Weidong and Li Xueping reveal the reciprocal actions among the residents and public goods resulting from their cooperation can overcome the paradox of collective act, which is the major meaning of community administration and the essence of civil society. To transcend the paradox of collective action go to the heart of community governance and civil society. The essence of pure democracy and civil society is the process of voluntary organization, constant bargaining, majority decision or unanimous agreement, representative implantation, mutual supervision and arbitrament. The community governance structure is a new civic participatory network in which the trust and cooperation are co-related to the network density [12]. From the perspective of economics, market mechanism is the best one to provide the private goods, while the public goods should be provided by the public organizations. In certain sense, a well-developed social media system can promote the state act, civil society and market economy to develop into a benign dynamic relationship. In short, that social media system is a kind of public good [13]. As a democratization practice to participate into the civil society and a systemic institution to curb the excessive expansion of state power, the NGOs have to participate into the community affairs through the participation and influences of the educated group, under the previous condition, it’s possible for us to make the real moral community come into existence, which has been fully revealed in modern democratic societies [14]. The development of the NGOs is under the particular historical and social context, and the diversification of interest bodies is an important base upon which the original system begin to change and the NGOs emerge from and develop in. In recent years, China has seen many autonomous and spontaneous right-defending and participation activities, which reveal the growing of civil society in China, and the strengthening of the public’s autonomy and self-rule view. A newly-adjusted interest relation has come into being, which is guided by the semi-executive mechanism, realized by the community administration and service institutions, and composed of the enterprises and governmental work units, social groups, as well as the individual resident. But the particularity of the Chinese social transition determines that the Chinese civil society should be different from the western road and style. With a short history, the Chinese civil society encounters many problems, both in the political and economic environment it exists and its internal structure and functions. In accordance with the review on the “civil society” emerging from the contemporary economic reforms in China carried out by Gordon White in 1993, the NGOs in China maintains at the elementary period. Rather than the big amount of the NGOs, they can’t function as the principal part of social administration, as a result of the prevailing executive feature, unhealthy mechanism, innormative service, low quality of the members, poor external supervision. Therefore, it’s necessary for us to reshape the current social administration form in which the government and society are combined closely and complexly. In addition, it’s also necessary to define the essence, goal, function, obligation, power and interest of the NGOs. Although the emergence of civil society is an autonomous process of molding, it needs the active fostering by the political countries, especially for those underdeveloped market-driven society. on one side, the government should keep in touch with the public, give ear to their voices in the decision making process to minimize the gap between public need and the government capacity; on the other side, the government should control the participation in case of participation explosion in the political system. The development of NGOs is a good option because it could not only give public voices but also integrate the participation enthusiasm. It’s necessary for the government to broaden the channels to participate into the political life for the citizens, create favorable conditions for the development of the NGOs (e.g. the NGOs’ participation into the administration of public affairs), and assist the NGOs (human resources, goods) and guide their development in the proper time; but in a mature time, government should get out of the operation of the NGOs voluntarily in case of the NGOs’ excessive reliance upon the government, which may lead to the governmentalization of the non-governmental organizations; government should supervise the NGOs’ action, and enrich the operation means and functional mechanism of the NGOs; it’s urgent to perfect the laws, enhance the legislation on the NGOs, and clarify the NGOs’ obligations and standard operation forms to make them shoulder the relevant responsibilities resulting from their illegal actions. In addition, the government had better establish a system of laws and rules about the NGOs, to make sure that they administer the public affairs and serve the communities in accordance with the laws [15]. The development and improvement of the NGOs in China needs both the gradual maturity of the civil society and the gradual development of market economy; it also needs both the active fostering and guidance and the generous support and participation from the general public. As a kind of organization with obvious voluntarity, self-rule and non-profitability, the NGOs can only rely on the society and the individuals. Therefore, in order to maintain a longtime development, the NGOs should establish and develop civil society beyond the states and markets. The NGOs express the will of the public, reveal the interests of citizens and invite opportunities for participation, the development of NGOs is sure to get the public support, including economic support. The fostering of civil society promotes the capability of the society and the individuals to shoulder their own responsibility and exercise their own functions, to set up the base for the NGOs to obtain its economic independence [16]. 4. In the market-driven society, the political state should establish the civil society actively so as to pursue the economic development and political reform at the same time, and to ensure the benign operation of the whole society. To display the effectiveness, efficiency, responsiveness and responsibility, the social administration must realize network. The so-called network administration is a three-dimensional and hierarchical administrative means in which involves various administration institutions and forces together with the readjustment of the social resources. It is not a simple and straightforward functional process of power, but an indirect and penetrative linking dynamics of multi-power, in order to obtain the effect of moistening everything with thinnish sound. What’s important is that, as the carrier of shaping the civil society in China, the NGOs should exercise their administration function when penetrating into the network. In theory, this social administration form of network consists of the interaction of three actors in three layers, in other words, the government, market organizations (enterprises), and the NGOs are all the driving forces for the melodic function and gradual development, and these three actors mobilize the political, economic and social (cultural) resources and forces by means of executive approaches, management and self-rule, to form a management system which puts influences upon the society [17]. As an important part within the civil society, the existence and operation of the NGOs represents certain social assets, and plays a positive role in the development of the Chinese society and economy. In a society in which the NGOs are very active, both the state and market will function more effectively. The NGOs endeavor to strengthen the self-management capability of the social members, therefore, they can promote the development of civil society and realize the increment of the social assets in terms of human rights, education, governmental participation, information circulation, etc [18]. Along with the in-depth development of the economic globalization, and the further engagement between China and the international society, the social structure has undergone certain transformations, stratification within the classes and stratum in the Chinese society has emerged, and a diverse interest structure has come in being in the society. The civil society with the contract relationship as its medium has grown gradually; therefore, the Chinese government should pay more attention to the fostering and development of the NGOs, together with the establishment of social administration system upon the right base of the social bodies, which will be the important practice direction for the transition of the Chinese government administration mode. Through the fostering and development of the NGOs, we can realize the following targets: further reform of the government administration system and the correspondence between the governments and society; the further reform of the institutions; the promotion of the government’s ability to manage the economy, with the aim to readjust the relation between the governments and enterprises and the relation between the governments and market; full use of the NGOs’ self-management, and the strengthening of that of the society [19]. In the process in which the state releases certain rights to the society, both the free-flowing social energy and the free-moving social space are expanding, only to realize the emergence of China’s own civil society. Although it is still very small and faced with many obstacles, its development and growth is inevitable. There are reasons to believe that with the maturity of civic awareness comes the increasing number of NGOs. The autonomous and self-government organizations will contribute to civil interest protection and civil will expression. Democratic participation, civil self-rule in addition to the privatization of the organizations will push the NGOs in the Chinese society to develop forward more and more healthily, so as to play an active role in the forging of good administration and the great goal to fulfill the overall well-off society in China. Authors: Liu Zhongqi, 1975, Male, Lecturer of Research Center of Urban Society, Shanghai Administration Institute, Shanghai 200233, China Pan Hongyan, 1972, Female, Associate-professor of Research Center of Urban Society, Shanghai Administration Institute, Shanghai 200233, China -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] Promote the Reform of the Street Administration System, Enhance the Modern Administration of the Cities”, Beijing Daily, December 7,1998; Guangzhou Deepens The City Administration System Reform”, Guangzhou Daily, December 29,1998. [2] Huang Jie, Civil Society and Community Construction, Discovery, June 2002. [3] Zhao Liqing, Issues on the NGOs in China, Jiangsu Social Sciences, April 2000. [4] Yu Keping, Transition of the Interest and Governance of the Civil Society in China, Social Sciences Academic Press, 2002, p.96 [5] Zheng Anyun, Dai Yaling，“An Assumption on the NGOs’ Roles in the Community Construction”, Journal of Humanities. [6] Wang Yuming,” The NGOs and their Social Administration Functions”, Journal of the Party School of the Jujian Province, July, 2001. [7] Yu Keping, Transition of the Interest and Governance of the Civil Society in China, Social Sciences Academic Press, 2002, p.113 [8] Yu Keping, Transition of the Interest and Governance of the Civil Society in China, Social Sciences Academic Press, 2002, p.113 [9] Zhang Lirong, Jin Honglei, Incentives to the Vitalization of the NGOs—A Bi-dimensional Perspective, Journal of Hubei Administrative College, April, 2003. [10] Huang Jie, Civil Society and Community Construction, Discovery, June 2002. [11] Robert Putnam, Making Democracy Work, translated by Wang Lie, Nanchang, Jiangxi People’s Publishing House, 2001, p.191. [12] Chen Weidong, Li Xueping, “Community Administration and The Upgrowth of the Civil Society”, Journal of the Huazhong Normal University (Arts and Social Sciences), January 2003. [13] Li Hengguan, Develop the NGOs and Promote the Executive Reform of the Government, March 2002. [14] Xiong Yueyin, “The Development of the ‘Third Sector’ in the Transitional Countries---An Analysis of China’s Reality, Sociological Studies, January 2001. [15] Wu Qin, Gu Wen, “The Development of the NGOs in the U.S. and its Reflections to China’s Executive Reforms”, Journal of Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (Social Sciences), April, 2001. [16] Li Yongjun, Lu Jinliang, “The Vitalization of the Third Sector in the Western Nations and its Reflections to China’s Development of the Third Sector”, Chengdu Administrative College, May 2002. [17] Jin Jiahou, “The Social Administration Under a Transition Period: the Development Positioning and Form Projection of the Organizaitons”, Yun’nan Social Sciences, May 2003. [18] Zhao Liqing, Robert Putnam, Civil Society and the NGOs, The Foreign Social Sciences, January 1999. [19] Luo Hailin, “Develop the NGOs---An Important Step to Promote the Government Reform”, Journal of Anhui Institute of Education, May 2002.
Up
|
