Study On Public Participation In Constructing Contemporary China’s Ecological Civilization

Ecological civilization, an indispensable part of human civilization, is developed as human beings strive to balance their relationship with nature(mainly the natural environment and resources). It requires commitment and can never be accomplished without public participation. The involvement of the individual members in the construction of ecological civilization reflects the democratic development and ecological progress in a country. Considering its development process throughout the world, it can be safely said that the ecological progress just burgeons and is gaining momentum as ideas of sustainable development, green development and environmental protection become more and more popular.The promotion of ecological civilization in contemporary China comes as a result of the CPC’s better understanding of the laws concerning the Party’s governance, socialist construction and the development of human society. Though implemented under the leadership of the CPC and the Government, the development of an ecological civilization with Chinese characteristics cannot be achieved without the public’s engagement, which is not only the inherent requirement of sticking to the leading role of the people, and the only way to building socialist democratic politics, but also the source of power of the ecological cause. By taking part in the cause, especially by getting involved in and influencing the process of ecological protection and relevant decision-making, the public can make known their ecological concerns and satisfy their ecological demands, thus fulfilling their aspiration to be the master of their own country in this regard.Ever since the founding of the PRC, especially since the country’s reform and opening-up started at the end of the 1970 s, the Communist Party and the Government have encouraged the general public to participate in the efforts of environmental protection and the reasonable use of natural resources, and in the discussion of the related issues. As time passes on, more and more people take the initiative to promote the ecological progress with concrete actions on a regular basis,which is a contrast to the past when there were no or few people who cared, when people just paid service or only took mass-movement-type actions as a response to the Party’s call. The public’s increased ecological awareness and efforts sometimes even force the governments to accelerate environmental protection. The public’s engagement in the development of an ecological civilization is a solemn exhibition of the progress that contemporary China is making.The concept of public participation in constructing contemporary China’s ecological civilization is justifiable. First, its theoretical justification lies in the fact that it is guided by the ecological theory put forward by Marx and Engels and their ideas about people’s activities therein, that it must develop the useful part of the traditional Chinese theory that man is an integral part of nature while discarding the useless part, that it must use both the revolutionary-subject theory of eco-socialism and the public trust doctrine for reference. Second, its justification in the aspect of actual practice lies in the fact that the public must and can only take a series of practical actions before they can build a beautiful China which is resourceconserving and environmentally friendly, and reconstruct a new and harmonious relationship between man and nature. Third, the empirical justification emphasizes the cooperation between the individuals, the government and even the international community. The public can build up their own awareness of and enthusiasm for promoting ecological progress by regarding it as a social responsibility and a sound attitude of consumption. The government will become more capable of ecological protection by deepening reform, improving the national ecological management system and modernizing ecological management ability. Meanwhile, the international community must work together closer to promote mankind’s common good in ecological protection.The idea of public participation in constructing contemporary China’s ecological civilization is also feasible. Nowadays, the public can make more use of hearings, discussions, questionnaires and public-interest litigations in ecological legislation, decision making, implementation and relief work. NGOs, as an important platform for the public to take part in environmental protection, become increasingly professional and standardized. Compared with the individuals, the NGOs can havemore say and initiative in the dialogue and negation with the government and enterprises. Moreover, the public can rely on the weight of public opinion, produced by the joint efforts of the traditional media and the new Internet media, to influence the government’s ecological policies and action plans. In this sense, the public participation in promoting ecological progress has become a common view shared by the Government and the people. However, the status quo is still far from satisfactory. In fact, due to the relatively underdeveloped economy, deficient ecological consciousness among the people, the lack of a sound framework of institutions, and the wrong concept of achievement on the part of government departments and officials, the ecological endeavors in contemporary China are stilled featured by participation imbalance, blindness, randomness, and lack of depth. To change the situation, we have to face the problems and strive to find solutions to them.Public participation in constructing an ecological civilization is an exemplification of the concept of “sharing” put forward by the Fifth Plenum of the18 th CPC Central Committee. Because it runs through the whole process and all stages of contemporary China’s ecological development, we should tackle it systematically from a new approach and with new measures and methods.Specifically, we should raise the public’s eco-technology consciousness, eco-rights consciousness, eco-moral consciousness and eco-rule of law consciousness. We should clearly identify government responsibilities in eco-protection so as to guarantee that the people’s needs for participation in eco-development are met. We should integrate and improve the information mechanism, the expression mechanism,the involvement mechanism, the supervision mechanism and the incentive mechanism to bring their functions as a whole into full play. We should also depend on the People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference,combining their respective function of electoral democracy and deliberative democracy to widen and deepen the public participation efforts within the institutional framework. A reasonable assessment system should be established as well to scientifically evaluate public participation in three aspects: people’s capabilities, government support, and participation performance. Finally, we shouldabsorb the valuable achievements and beneficial experiences that other countries have obtained in their public participation in ecological development, and use them as reference.To help fulfill the Chinese dream, we should advance public participation in the construction of ecological civilization. To promote the participation endeavors, we should integrate long-term perseverance with short-term efforts, emphasize the aim while following the rule, combine top-level design with exploration at the basic level,and act according to our social reality while using foreign experience as reference.