By Qian Cheng and Zhao Zheng, Research Team on “The Promotion of Social Governance System and Modernized Governance Capability Building in Hunan Province”, Institute of Public Administration and Human Resources, DRC

Research Report, No.122, 2021 (Total 6187) 2021-5-14

Abstract: China’s national governance system, under the leadership of the Party organizations and government administration, is in line with the major institutional arrangements. In the new era, in order to build a new pattern for China’s community-level governance, it is necessary to strengthen the Party’s leading role in organizational work and give prominence to government administration. China’s current governance organizational work is featured by centralized administration by specialized departments. Through connecting the central government departments with local government departments, the focus of work is laid on community-level governance and based on local innovative practice. Currently, there are some problems with community-level governance. For instance, the responsibilities for management are not clearly defined, the functions of some departments are overlapping, leading to weak interaction; some officials’ governance concepts remain to be enhanced in terms of their leading role in organizational work; some community-level officials are not competent in offering political guidance due to weak organizational ability, especially in face of the newly emerged social conflicts and safety risks in the new era. In order to enhance the participation of social organizations in social governance organization work, this paper notes that we need to make innovations in terms of organizational work, strengthen synergetic planning, forge ahead with departmental coordination, improve community-level Party building, enhance officials’ capability and encourage more social organizations to get involved in community-level governance.

Keywords: community-level governance, organizational leadership, development features, main problems, policy options