Transform China’s institutional advantages into the effectiveness of national governance.
The Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee adopted the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China’s Proposal on Formulating the 14th Five-year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-term Goals for the Year 2035 (hereinafter referred to as the Proposal), which regards "the efficiency of national governance has been newly improved" as one of the main goals of China’s economic and social development in the next five years, and makes important arrangements for promoting the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity during the 14th Five-Year Plan period. We should accurately grasp the significance, requirements, paths, etc. of achieving this important goal, continue to modernize the national governance system and governance capacity, better transform China’s institutional advantages into national governance efficiency, and make great strides toward the grand goal of building a socialist modern country in an all-round way.
It is of great significance to improve the efficiency of national governance.
The national governance system and governance capacity are the concentrated expression of a country’s system and its implementation capacity. In the governance activities, the governance subject carries out the system, obtains the corresponding governance effect, achieves the established governance goal, and shows the governance efficiency. Judging from the historical evolution of national governance, the efficiency of a country’s governance directly reflects the modernization level of the country’s governance system and governance capacity, and is also an important criterion for judging the advantages and disadvantages of a country’s system. It can be said that improving the efficiency of state governance is not only an important content to promote the modernization of state governance, but also an important goal to be achieved, which is of great significance to upholding and improving the Socialism with Chinese characteristics system.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the CPC Central Committee with the Supreme Leader as the core has placed system construction in a more prominent position, made historic achievements in strengthening and improving national governance, improved Socialism with Chinese characteristics’s system, and significantly improved the modernization level of national governance system and governance capacity. General Secretary of the Supreme Leader pointed out: "It is necessary to strengthen the implementation of the system, strengthen the supervision of the implementation of the system, and effectively transform China’s institutional advantages into governance efficiency." China’s national system and national governance system have obvious advantages in many aspects. Only by better transforming the institutional advantages into the effectiveness of state governance can we better demonstrate the power of the system, give play to the fundamental guarantee role of the system, unite the whole party and the people of all ethnic groups more closely, and release the powerful energy to overcome difficulties and promote the development of the cause.
According to the strategic arrangement made by the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China to realize the goal of the second century, an important content is to basically realize the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity by 2035. At present, we still have some shortcomings and weaknesses in national governance, such as the need to improve the implementation of the system and the need to improve the supervision of system implementation. The new improvement of the efficiency of state governance is precisely the top-level design made in promoting the modernization of state governance system and governance capacity with an eye to achieving the goal of the second century, adhering to the combination of goal orientation and problem orientation, and pointing out the focus and direction of promoting the modernization of state governance system and governance capacity during the 14 th Five-Year Plan period, which is an inevitable requirement for building a socialist modern country in an all-round way.
Accurately grasp the requirements of improving the efficiency of national governance
Standing at the strategic and overall height, the "Proposal" puts forward clear objectives and requirements from the aspects of improving socialist democracy and the rule of law, improving the state administrative system, obviously improving the level of social governance, especially grassroots governance, and continuously improving the system and mechanism for preventing and resolving major risks, and clarifies the direction and focus of improving the efficiency of state governance.
Socialist democracy and the rule of law are more sound. Socialism with Chinese characteristics’s political system has unique advantages, which provides a strong political guarantee and institutional guarantee for the prosperity and long-term stability of the party and the country. The "Proposal" emphasizes: "Adhere to the organic unity of the party’s leadership, the people being the masters of the country and governing the country according to law, and promote the self-improvement and development of Socialism with Chinese characteristics’s political system." We must uphold and improve the party’s leadership and implement it in all fields and aspects of state governance. We must uphold and improve the country’s fundamental political system and basic political system, give play to the role of people’s organizations, consolidate and develop the broadest patriotic United front, and gather wisdom and strength for building a socialist modern country in an all-round way. Governing the country according to law in an all-round way is an inevitable requirement for promoting social fairness and justice and maintaining social harmony and stability. Guided by the supreme leader’s thought of the rule of law, we should persist in promoting the rule of law, rule of law and administration according to law, adhere to the integration of a country ruled by law, a government ruled by law and a society ruled by law, improve the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics, improve the level of administration according to law, improve the operation and supervision mechanism of supervision power, judicial power and procuratorial power, promote judicial justice, and carry out in-depth publicity and education on the rule of law to further highlight social fairness and justice.
The national administrative system is more perfect. The level and ability of government governance are directly related to the improvement of governance efficiency. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the reform of party and state institutions has been deepened, and the government governance system has been further rationalized and improved. Entering a new stage of development, building a high-level socialist market economic system, ensuring and improving people’s livelihood, etc., all need to give full play to the role of the government. The "Proposal" proposes to accelerate the transformation of government functions and build a government governance system with clear responsibilities and administration according to law. It is necessary to further deepen decentralization, combine decentralization with management, optimize service reform, comprehensively improve administrative efficiency, improve the efficiency of government services, effectively save and reduce administrative costs, build a government ruled by law, and enhance government execution and credibility.
The level of social governance, especially grassroots governance, has improved significantly. Judging from the overall process of modernization of state governance, social governance has the closest relationship with people’s production and life, and there are many shortcomings and weaknesses. The "Proposal" puts forward the target requirement that "the level of social governance, especially grass-roots governance, has been significantly improved", indicating that social governance, especially grass-roots governance, has become a key area to achieve new improvement and make new breakthroughs in the effectiveness of state governance in the future. It is necessary to push the focus of social governance down to the grassroots level, strengthen and innovate regional social governance, improve the social governance system, improve the level of social governance, and create a new situation of grassroots governance.
The system and mechanism for preventing and resolving major risks have been continuously improved. National security system and capacity building are the basis and guarantee for promoting the modernization of national governance system and governance capacity and improving the efficiency of national governance. Without security, it is impossible to improve the efficiency of national governance. At present, profound and complex changes have taken place in the domestic and international environment, which further highlights the importance of national security system and capacity building. The "Proposal" sets up a special chapter to make comprehensive arrangements for overall development and safety. We must adhere to the overall national security concept as the guide, improve the national security system, improve the centralized, unified, efficient and authoritative national security leadership system, improve the national security rule of law system, strategic system, policy system, talent system and operational mechanism, strengthen the early warning, prevention and control mechanism and capacity building of economic security risks, improve the public security guarantee ability, and escort the development of safer.
Take multiple measures to improve the efficiency of national governance
Promoting the modernization of national governance system and governance capacity, and realizing the new improvement of national governance efficiency is a complex systematic project, which requires comprehensive efforts in governance environment, governance objectives, governance pattern, governance methods, governance tools, governance capacity and governance evaluation.
Scientifically judge the governance environment. Governance environment is an important factor affecting the development and efficiency improvement of national governance. At present, the world is experiencing a great change that has never happened in a century, and the development environment at home and abroad in China is undergoing profound and complex changes, which has brought both new challenges and new opportunities to the modernization process of state governance. It is necessary to strengthen the scientific judgment on the governance environment with stronger strategic determination, sharper insight and clearer judgment, so as to better formulate governance strategies, promote governance reform and improve governance efficiency.
Clearly set governance goals. A modern national governance system must have a set of clear and definite governance objectives. After the Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee put forward the "three-step" overall goal of adhering to and improving the Socialism with Chinese characteristics system, and promoting the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity, the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee defined the specific goal of improving the effectiveness of national governance in the next five years. According to these objectives, we should further clarify and refine the specific objectives in different governance areas, and form a measurable, operational and assessable governance target system.
Construct and improve the governance structure. It is very important to coordinate all kinds of governance subjects and form a scientific and reasonable governance pattern for improving the efficiency of national governance. Under the leadership of the Party, it is necessary to build and improve a governance structure in which different governance bodies, such as the government, enterprises and institutions, market players, social organizations, and individual citizens, not only perform their duties and do their best, but also learn from each other’s strengths and complement each other’s strengths, so as to fully mobilize and stimulate the enthusiasm and creativity of all parties.
Promote the governance process according to law. The rule of law is an important support for the national governance system and governance capacity. Governing a big country like China is highly complicated. Only by modernizing the national governance system and governance capacity on the track of the rule of law can we ensure the orderly development of all work. We should be good at transforming the advantages of socialist rule of law into the effectiveness of state governance, and establish and consolidate the new achievements of improving the effectiveness of state governance in the form of rule of law, and give full play to the guarantee role of the rule of law in consolidating the foundation, stabilizing expectations and benefiting the long term.
Flexible use of governance tools. In the face of complicated governance problems and challenges, it is necessary to comprehensively use a variety of governance tools. Give full play to the aggregation effect of various governance tools, form a more flexible combination of governance tools, and flexibly choose governance tools according to time, place, people and things, effectively helping to improve the efficiency of national governance.
Comprehensively enhance governance capabilities. Governance ability is the ability to manage all aspects of affairs by using the national system, which directly affects the governance effect. Governance ability covers leadership, planning, execution, control, evaluation and adaptability. It is necessary to formulate and implement detailed governance capacity improvement plans from different levels and contents to provide support for the new improvement of national governance efficiency.
Scientifically implement governance evaluation. To judge the efficiency of governance, a scientific and systematic index system is needed as the evaluation basis. Based on China’s national conditions and reality, a set of scientific and feasible evaluation index system should be constructed according to the goal of improving the efficiency of national governance. At the same time, according to the development and change of practice, the evaluation index system is constantly improved to realize the benign interaction between the improvement of governance efficiency and the improvement of evaluation index system.
(The author is Party Secretary of China Renmin University)
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