By Wang Weijin & Huang Jin, Institute of Public Administration and Human Resources, DRC

Research Report, No.124, 2021 (Total 6189) 2021-5-17

Abstract: The public is the most direct beneficiary of grassroots governance with the largest number of people’s participation. During the current promotion of public participation in grassroots governance, local governments have made effective innovations in launching grassroots democratic consultation, boosting the vitality of village regulations and agreements and improving the effectiveness of people’s mediation. However, there are some weak points to be addressed including inadequate implementation of the grassroots self-governance system, improper grassroots democratic consultation mechanisms, limited public participation carriers and low willingness and weak ability of the public in participating in deliberations and consultations. To stimulate the vitality of grassroots governance and cultivate a grassroots social governance community in which everyone bears his share of responsibility, everyone fulfils his responsibility and everyone enjoys the equal right, this paper notes that we need to implement and innovate the grassroots self-governance system, promote the integration of consultations in grassroots democratic communities and people’s political consultative conferences, develop grassroots social communities and volunteers, give full play to the role of modern information technology in supporting public participation, and enhance the awareness and ability of the public through promoting community cultural communications and introducing professional social workers.

Keywords: public participation, grassroots governance, democratic consultations, grassroots self-governance