Uphold a People-Centered Approach and Advance the Modernization of Social Governance

Social governance is an important component of national governance, and the modernization of social governance is a key element in the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the Party and the state have made a series of major decisions and deployments, driving new achievements in social governance and writing a new chapter in the two miracles of rapid economic development and long-term social stability. [n1] The *Proposal of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035* states: improve the social governance system. Uphold systematic governance, law-based governance, comprehensive governance, and source governance; improve the social governance system of joint contribution, joint governance, and shared benefits; and advance the modernization of social governance. This points the way forward and provides the fundamental guidance for us to uphold a people-centered approach, improve and innovate social governance, and unswervingly follow the path of socialist social governance with Chinese characteristics.

社会治理是国家治理的重要组成部分，社会治理现代化是国家治理体系和治理能力现代化的重要内容。党的十八大以来，党和国家作出一系列重大决策部署，推动社会治理取得新成就，书写了经济快速发展、社会长期稳定两大奇迹新篇章。《中共中央关于制定国民经济和社会发展第十五个五年规划的建议》提出，完善社会治理体系。坚持系统治理、依法治理、综合治理、源头治理，完善共建共治共享的社会治理制度，推进社会治理现代化。这为我们坚持以人民为中心、完善和创新社会治理，坚定不移走好中国特色社会主义社会治理之路指明了前进方向、提供了根本遵循。

Take the leadership of the Party as the command, providing the fundamental guarantee for social governance. The comprehensive leadership of the Party is the most distinctive feature and greatest strength in advancing Chinese-path modernization, and it is also the "mainstay" for maintaining the correct direction of social governance and effectively solving governance problems in a complex and volatile environment. Social governance is an important part of the Party's work. Adhering to the Party's comprehensive leadership over social governance helps to give full play to the political leadership, ideological guidance, mass organization, and social mobilization capabilities of Party organizations, transforming the Party's political, organizational, and institutional advantages into advantages in social governance. At present, the world is undergoing changes unseen in a century. China's social governance activities involve many points, long lines, and broad areas, and various international and domestic, overt and covert risks and contradictions are prone to overlap. Faced with the above situation, on the one hand, it is necessary to focus on enhancing organizational capacity, highlight political functions, and build Party organizations at all levels and of all types into strong fighting fortresses that propagate and implement Party decisions, unite and mobilize the masses, and lead and promote social governance. On the other hand, with the rapid development of emerging fields, a large number of new economic organizations and new social organizations have emerged, and the scale of new employment groups continues to expand. It is necessary to focus on strengthening Party building in emerging fields, effectively achieving Party organizational coverage and work coverage in new economic organizations, new social organizations, and new employment groups, and promoting effective governance in emerging fields.

以党的领导为统领，提供社会治理根本保障。党的全面领导是推进中国式现代化的最鲜明特征和最大优势，也是在复杂多变环境中保持社会治理正确方向、有效破解治理难题的“主心骨”。社会治理是党的工作的重要组成部分。坚持党对社会治理的全面领导，有助于充分发挥党组织的政治领导力、思想引领力、群众组织力和社会号召力，把党的政治优势、组织优势、制度优势转化为社会治理优势。当前，世界正经历百年未有之大变局，我国社会治理活动点多、线长、面广，各类国际与国内、显性与隐性风险矛盾容易相互叠加。面对上述形势，一方面，必须以提升组织力为重点，突出政治功能，把各级各类党组织建设成为宣传贯彻党的决策、团结动员群众、领导推动社会治理的坚强战斗堡垒；另一方面，随着新兴领域快速发展，新经济组织、新社会组织大量涌现，新就业群体规模不断扩大，要着力加强新兴领域党的建设，切实实现新经济组织、新社会组织、新就业群体党的组织覆盖和工作覆盖，促进新兴领域有效治理。

Take joint contribution, joint governance, and shared benefits as the goal, continuously improving the pattern of social governance. Joint contribution, joint governance, and shared benefits means giving full play to the roles and comparative advantages of multiple subjects such as the Party and government, market entities, social organizations, and the people; building a social governance community involving the Party, government, enterprises, social organizations, and residents, where everyone has responsibility, everyone fulfills their duty, and everyone enjoys the benefits; continuously stimulating the enthusiasm and initiative of each governance subject to participate in governance activities; and thereby maximizing the effectiveness of social governance. This concept also reflects the process of governance activities continuously optimizing from the traditional sense of "good government" to "good governance" in response to changes in the social governance situation. Good government refers to a binary structure in which society is divided into managers and the managed. Managers use public power to maintain social order through accurate, efficient, and clean administrative activities. Its main characteristics include strict laws and regulations, clean officials, efficient administration, and standardized management. The core goal is efficiency rationality, emphasizing the rationality of management means, while giving less consideration to the social rationality of the efficiency results themselves. However, it is not enough for social governance to merely pursue the maximization of total efficiency rationality; it must also fully respond to the reasonable demands of multiple subjects such as the market, society, and residents. Good governance, on the other hand, is a governance process aimed at maximizing the public interest, helping to stimulate the endogenous motivation of each governance subject. Joint contribution, joint governance, and shared benefits is precisely a social governance process oriented towards maximizing the public interest shared by all members of society, helping to promote the coordinated operation and benign interaction between the state and society, making society both full of vitality and orderly.

以共建共治共享为目标，不断完善社会治理格局。共建共治共享，就是要充分发挥党和政府、市场主体、社会组织和人民群众等多元主体的作用和比较优势，构建政党、政府、企业、社会组织和居民多方参与、人人有责、人人尽责、人人享有的社会治理共同体，不断激发各治理主体参与治理活动的积极性与主动性，进而实现社会治理效能最大化。这一理念同时体现出，适应社会治理形势发展变化，治理活动由传统意义上的“善政”向“善治”不断优化的过程。善政是指在社会被划分为管理者与被管理者的二元结构中，管理者运用公共权力，通过准确、高效、廉洁的行政管理活动维持社会秩序，其主要特征包括严明法度、清廉官员、高效行政和规范管理，核心目标在于效率理性，强调管理手段的合理性，而较少考量效率结果本身的社会合理性。然而，社会治理仅仅追求效率理性的总量最大化是不够的，还必须充分回应市场、社会和居民等多元主体的合理诉求。善治则是以公共利益最大化为目标的治理过程，有助于激发各治理主体的内生动力。共建共治共享正是以实现社会成员整体共享的公共利益最大化为导向的社会治理过程，有助于推动国家与社会协同运行、良性互动，使社会既充满活力又保持有序。

Take the people as the center, adhering to the value principles of social governance. The people are the creators of history and also the practical subjects of social governance activities. The mass line is the lifeline of the Party. To improve and innovate social governance, it is necessary to practice the Party's mass line in the New Era, firmly establish a people's standpoint, uphold the principal position of the people, fully stimulate the people's enthusiasm, initiative, and creativity, improve the institutional mechanisms for rallying, organizing, mobilizing, and serving the people, and take realizing, safeguarding, and developing the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people as the starting point and落脚点 of all social governance activities. [n2] At present, the principal contradiction in Chinese society has been transformed into the contradiction between the people's ever-growing needs for a better life and unbalanced and inadequate development. The people's needs in areas such as medical care, education, employment, health, environment, culture, and safety continue to grow, and higher demands are placed on the timeliness, transparency, and standardization of social governance. There is an urgent need to accurately grasp and effectively respond to what the people are thinking, wanting, worrying about, and hoping for, continuously enhancing the people's sense of gain, happiness, and security. It is necessary to improve the system for coordinating interest relations and safeguarding legitimate rights and interests, smooth channels for the people to express reasonable demands, and maintain social fairness and justice. It is necessary to strengthen and improve the service management of various social groups, and do a good job with care and affection in assisting and supporting groups such as the elderly living alone, families in difficulty, persons with disabilities, and special-needs children. It is necessary to improve the social psychological service system, promote the extension of service tentacles to the "last kilometer" at the grassroots level, and consolidate the psychological foundation of social governance. It is necessary to uphold and develop the "Fengqiao Experience" in the New Era, [n3] raise the level of law-based governance in petition work, systematically collect, sort out, and provide feedback on the people's opinions and suggestions, establish work ledgers, move the threshold for resolving various risks and contradictions forward, and eliminate them in the bud.

以人民群众为中心，坚守社会治理价值原则。人民群众是历史的创造者，也是社会治理活动的实践主体。群众路线是党的生命线，完善和创新社会治理，必须践行新时代党的群众路线，牢固树立人民立场、坚持人民主体地位，充分激发人民群众的积极性、主动性和创造性，健全凝聚群众、组织群众、动员群众、服务群众的制度机制，把实现好、维护好、发展好最广大人民的根本利益作为一切社会治理活动的出发点和落脚点。当前，我国社会主要矛盾已转化为人民日益增长的美好生活需要和不平衡不充分的发展之间的矛盾，人民群众在医疗、教育、就业、卫生、环境、文化、安全等方面的需求持续增长，并对社会治理的及时性、透明性和规范性提出更高要求，迫切需要准确把握并有效回应群众所思、所想、所忧、所盼，不断增强人民群众的获得感、幸福感和安全感。要健全利益关系协调和合法权益保障制度，畅通群众合理诉求表达渠道，维护社会公平正义。要加强和改进各类社会群体服务管理，用心用情做好孤寡老人、困难家庭、残障人士和特殊儿童等群体的关爱帮扶工作。要健全社会心理服务体系，推动服务触角向基层“最后一公里”延伸，夯实社会治理的心理基础。要坚持和发展新时代“枫桥经验”，提升信访工作法治化水平，系统做好群众意见建议的征集、梳理和反馈，建立工作台账，将各类风险矛盾化解关口前移，消除在萌芽状态。

Take the urgent concerns of the grassroots as the focus, shifting the center of gravity of social governance work downward. If the foundation is not solid, the ground will shake and the mountains will tremble. [n4] The grassroots level is the concentration point for various social contradictions and problems, and it is also the "first kilometer" of social governance. Grassroots social governance often faces practical difficulties such as limited resources and heavy tasks. At the same time, social contradictions and risks have many trigger points, spread quickly, and are highly perceptible. It is necessary to continuously promote the downward shift of the center of gravity of social governance, sinking human, material, and financial resources and other governance resources to the front line, effectively solving prominent problems such as insufficient resource coordination, unclear powers and responsibilities, and weak strength. It is necessary to continuously strengthen Party building leading grassroots governance and grassroots political power construction, building urban and rural grassroots Party organizations into strong fighting fortresses that propagate and implement the Party's decisions and deployments and lead and promote social governance. It is necessary to go deep into the front line of urban and rural communities to conduct field investigations, effectively grasp the urgent, difficult, and anxious problems of the people, take the community as the main scene and main battlefield, strengthen the coordination, integration, and supply of convenience service resources, strengthen the construction of the social worker team and the management of volunteer service organizations, and achieve "when the people call, we respond." It is necessary to scientifically assess the "double-edged sword" effect of the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology on social governance, and promote AI to empower social governance by fostering strengths and avoiding weaknesses. Centering on actual governance needs, break down the "information chimneys" and "data silos" between government departments, build an integrated information system and comprehensive smart platform for social governance, achieve effective collection and real-time feedback of social governance data, strengthen data analysis, processing, and comprehensive application, and further enhance the refinement, scientificity, and intelligence level of social governance.

以基层愁盼为重点，下移社会治理工作重心。基础不牢，地动山摇。基层是各类社会矛盾和问题的集中地，也是社会治理的“最初一公里”。基层社会治理往往面临资源有限、任务繁重等现实困难，同时社会矛盾与风险触点多、传播快、可感性强，必须持续推动社会治理重心向基层下移，将人力、物力、财力等治理资源向一线下沉，有效破解资源统筹不足、权责不清、力量薄弱等突出问题。要持续加强党建引领基层治理和基层政权建设，把城乡基层党组织建设成为宣传贯彻党的决策部署、领导推动社会治理的坚强战斗堡垒。要深入城乡社区一线开展实地摸排，切实掌握群众急难愁盼问题，以社区为主场景、主阵地，加强便民服务资源统筹整合与供给，加强社会工作者队伍建设和志愿服务组织管理，做到“民有所呼、我有所应”。要科学研判人工智能技术快速发展对社会治理带来的“双刃剑”效应，趋利避害推动人工智能赋能社会治理。围绕实际治理需求，打破政府部门之间的“信息烟囱”和“数据孤岛”，建设社会治理一体化信息系统和综合智慧平台，实现社会治理数据的有效采集与实时反馈，加强数据分析处理和综合运用，进一步提升社会治理的精细化、科学化和智能化水平。

Taking the integration of the “three forms of governance” [5]5 The “three forms of governance” (三治) refers to self-governance (自治), law-based governance (法治), and rule-of-virtue governance (德治) in the context of grassroots social governance. as the path, enhance the overall effectiveness of social governance. To improve and innovate social governance, it is necessary to base it on China’s national conditions, continuously perfect the urban-rural social governance system that combines self-governance, law-based governance, and rule-of-virtue governance under the leadership of Party organizations, and achieve an overall leap in governance effectiveness. The system of grassroots self-governance by the people is an important component of the political system of socialism with Chinese characteristics. It performs functions such as self-management, self-service, self-education, and self-supervision in grassroots social governance, helping to maximize the stimulation of the enthusiasm, initiative, and creativity of grassroots people in participating in social governance activities, and effectively resolving various contradictions and risks at the grassroots level. It is necessary to uphold and improve the coordination meeting system and hearing system of urban residents’ committees, as well as the rural villagers’ meeting and representative meeting systems, so as to better achieve effective governance at the grassroots level. Law-based governance is a basic means of modern social governance. It is necessary to be adept at using legal thinking and methods to improve and innovate social governance, adhere to scientific legislation, strict law enforcement, impartial justice, and universal compliance with the law, strengthen legal publicity, cultivate a legal soil, make law-based governance a social consensus and code of conduct, and strive to raise the level of law-based social governance. Rule-of-virtue governance moves people’s hearts through moral influence, and its educational effect is far-reaching. China is a country with a deep tradition of rule-of-virtue governance. By raising the level of moral awareness, guiding the people to consciously pursue goodness, and fostering a good social atmosphere, it can achieve the good effect of “spring breeze transforming rain, moistening things silently” [6]6 “Spring breeze transforming rain, moistening things silently” (春风化雨、润物无声) is a classical Chinese idiom, originally from the Book of Songs, used here to describe the subtle and profound influence of moral education.. It is necessary to give full play to the role of grassroots norms such as civic conventions and village rules and regulations in social governance, continuously strengthen the construction of family education and family traditions, promote the transformation of outdated customs, cultivate a social mentality of self-respect and self-confidence, rationality and peace, and confidence and upward striving, and lay a solid foundation for enhancing the overall effectiveness of social governance.

以“三治”结合为路径，提升社会治理整体效能。完善和创新社会治理，必须立足中国国情，不断健全党组织领导的自治、法治、德治相结合的城乡社会治理体系，实现治理效能的整体跃升。基层群众自治制度是中国特色社会主义政治制度的重要组成部分，在基层社会治理中发挥着自我管理、自我服务、自我教育、自我监督等功能，有助于最大限度激发基层群众参与社会治理活动积极性、主动性、创造性，将各类矛盾风险有效化解在基层。要坚持和完善城市居民委员会协调会制度、听证会制度以及农村村民会议和代表会议制度等，更好实现基层社会有效治理。法治是现代社会治理的基本手段，要善于运用法治思维和方式完善创新社会治理，坚持科学立法、严格执法、公正司法、全民守法，加强法治宣传、厚植法治土壤，让法治成为社会共识和行为准则，着力提升社会治理法治化水平。德治以道德感化人心，其教化作用深远。我国是一个具有深厚德治传统的国家，通过提升道德认识水平、引导民众自觉向善、营造良好社会风尚，可以达到春风化雨、润物无声的良好效果。要充分发挥市民公约、村规民约等基层规范在社会治理中的作用，持续加强家教家风建设，推进移风易俗，培育自尊自信、理性平和、自信向上的社会心态，为提升社会治理整体效能奠定坚实基础。

(The authors are a professor at the School of Politics and Public Administration, Zhengzhou University; and a researcher at the Public Administration Research Center, Zhengzhou University.)

（作者系郑州大学政治与公共管理学院教授；郑州大学公共管理研究中心研究员）