Community System Study

Along with the rapid transition of China's society and economy, the urbancommunity development and system construction have gradually become a basicstrategy to impel the development of China's urban society since the end of1980's. The present thesis attempts to inquire into the problems both in China'surban community construction practices and research, and to make clear thefundamental concepts and theories so as to help impel the China's urban communitysystem transformation. After an overall introduction of the background of therevival of the community development and the community system construction, themain achievements of relative research, and the frame, logic and method of thisresearch, the thesis firstly elaborates the inevitability of the construction ofthe community system from the intrinsic logic and the realistic origin. The presentpaper believes that, to choose and vigorously induct the community system is thelogical necessity of the transition of China's society and economy brought by thereform and open policy: First, due to the reform and open policy, China's generalsociety starts to dispel, the integration of state and society began todisintegrate, the social dual structure of state and society has been graduallyevolving to a tripod stands of government, market, and society, during which torelocate the role of the community and to reconstruct a society based on thecommunity system are of great necessity; Next, on account of the accelerativeprocess of urbanization, the living and housing way of the urban residents haveprofoundly changed, the neterogeny degree of the social group has been unceasinglyintensified, and the urban survival condition has gradually evolved fromhomogeneity and polymerization to neterogeny and separation. This change hasbrought to China's urban residents the sense of unfamiliarity, alienation andisolation, and has caused the community development and the community systemconstruction to be one kind of urgent need; Once more, the strategic status ofthe community living space which has gradually changed from an edging place toa strategic important place which is more and more prominent in the Party'sconstruction, the democratic political construction and the social enterprisedevelopment. This has further strengthened the inevitability and the importanceof the community development and the community system construction. At the sametime, to develop communities and construct a new community system is to satisfy the realistic need of Chinese city administration. On the one hand, as the unitshave been turning from compound function organizations to simple and specializedfunction organizations, the foundation of the unit system has been fundamentallyvacillated, and the social functions of the units have been shifted to community;On the other hand, the administration of the city society faces great difficultyunder the leadership of the neighborhood and resident system, for the neighborhoodshave met with a serious problem of organization inflation and function overload,the resident autonomous organizations have met with a serious problem of roleattachment and weary management, and the social organizations have met with aserious problem of growth difficulties and function insufficiency. These problemsall need to be solved through the transformation of the neighborhood and residentsystem and the construction of community system.In the recent years, the urban community construction of China has beenadvancing from initial idea level to system level. However, according to sometypical practices, this thesis believes that the transformation practices ofChina's community construction have not been able to break through the neighborhoodand resident system yet. The great variety of practice patterns have reflectedChina's urban community system exploration has met with puzzles and problems.Obviously people have not yet got the correct answers to some important questionssuch as what the community really is, how large the community should be, wherethe community should be located, and so on. This thesis believes that the mainreason for these phenomena lies in the imperfect elementary theories of urbancommunity development and urban community system construction, and without makingthe basic concepts clear or without scientific theories, people will not be ableto find the correct direction of China's urban community system construction. Inview of the present situation of the construction practice and theoretical researchof the community system construction, this thesis systematically analyzes andelaborates six fundamental problems of the community system construction asfollows:The first is the connotation problem. This thesis believes that, the essenceof the community deeply lies in the specific spirit, values and emotions amongthe interpersonal relationship of traditional village community. In other words,only the community filled with the spirit, values and emotions which are quiteimportant to human lives can be called as a community in the essential significance. The modern city community certainly is not a community in a traditional andessential significance, but is only a kind of housing shape of modern cities. Itis not an acquaintance society filled with neighborhood and partner sentiments,but is a neterogeny stranger world filled with diverse customs and values, in whichthe relationship among people are maintained by formal contracts and laws. It isnot a dependent and self sufficient living space in which each member closelyrelates, but is an opening social piece of which the organization structure andelement relationship are loose. In the modern urban community, people can onlyindistinctly see a regional outer covering and some torn pieces of the contentsof the traditional community. Essentially said, the modern city community is reallynot a community. The reason why the modern city community receives the widespreadattention and is taken as a community, is that it has borne the urban residents' caring for the good spirit, values and emotions of the traditional villagecommunity, it has brought a hope of using the traditional spirit, principles andideas to solve the problems of the modern society, it is an important carrier toentrust the modern urban society with the essence of the traditional villagecommunity, and it is a tool and an operation platform to revive the good spirit,values and emotions of the tradition community to transform the modern urbansociety.The second is the characteristic problem. This thesis believes that, the mostremarkable characteristic of the modern city community is the multiple governanceby equal main bodies, including the rational participation of the equal main bodiesand the multiple governance of common affairs. On the one hand, that the communitymain bodies participate in the community affairs and activities rationally andequally is one of the remarkable characteristics of the modern urban community.This characteristic has two aspects. Firstly, the community main bodies arerational and equal, and their participation is also rational and equal. In thecity community space, the main bodies of the modern urban community are not onlyconstituents of the relatively loose regional society, but also independentindividuals or units. It is the rational principles, mechanism and spirit thatreally control the motions of the main bodies of the modern urban community,including the equal reciprocal benefit principle, the democratic consultationmechanism and the public participation spirit. Secondly, the main channel thatthe main bodies of the modern urban community involve in community public affairs is participation, and the community participation is not only the fundamental modeof community system operation, but also is the basic and effective way to impelthe development of the community and the whole society. On the other hand, thatmain bodies participate in the multiple governance of community affairs is anotherremarkable characteristic of the modern urban community. The traditional villagecommunity is generally organized simply with a homogeneous population, on thecontrary, the modern urban community generally speaking is a gathering space forthe variety of multiple and loose main bodies. The local government enters thecommunity by a certain organization form and the management jurisdiction, and kindsof political, economical, social, cultural, educational, and health organizationsdistribute in the community. In the common space of the regional community, theseorganizations or units are having mutual relations with community organizationsand residents to various degrees, and among them there are not only related benefitsand common affairs which need coordination but also contradictions and problemswhich need to be solved. At the same time, as the common affairs increases rapidly,the community organizations and residents cannot cope with them by themselves,so the operation mechanism to negotiate among different main bodies to deal withcommon affairs should be established.The third is the boundary problem. This thesis believes, although in thefundamental research angle, people may definitely only carry on some theoreticalinspections to the community, with no need to inquire into the concrete boundaryof the community, but in the practice operation angle, people have to make clearwhere the concrete and visible entity of community is, because many ideas andconceptions can only be turned into realities in the entity of the community, andthe achievements of the community studies can only realize its own goal and valuein the concrete practice of the community construction. This thesis believes,compared with the traditional village community which comes into being naturally,a modern urban community in a certain region and time interval is possible topresent a trace of natural evolution, but most modern urban communities are resultsof artificial designs, plans and construction. What's more, stemming from thespecial characteristic and practical operation of the modern city community, thecommunity should have its absolute concrete boundary, or people will fall intorelativism and will be at a loss how to proceed. In the angle of relations betweenthe community and the society, the community as an essential basic unit and miniature of the society is itself the smallest society. Based on this, this thesisbelieves, to determinate the boundary of a community people must comply with theessential-factor-complete principle, the function-complete principle and themanagement-convenient principle. Simultaneously, to determinate the boundary ofa community must rest on a certain quantification standard and must consider notonly the size and population but also the facility disposition of the region.Profits from the experiences of developed countries and some other Chinese cities,this thesis believes, generally speaking the community generally should be locatedin the area of jurisdiction of the neighborhood, therefore an effort should betaken to change the nature of the neighborhood office so as to cause it to fadeout gradually.The fourth is the relationship problem. The present paper believes that, therelationship between the government and the community is the most important insocial management of the city. To reasonably definite the relationship betweenthe government and the community is not only a hot point but also a foundationalactor in the practices of the community management system transformation. It isrelated not only to the transformation and optimization of the government functionsbut also related to the vigor and ability of the basic units of the society. Firstly,in order to guarantee the government acting appropriately and effectively and avoidfunctional offside, vacancy or dislocation, the relationship between thegovernment and the community should be clearly defined. In the angle of theintrinsic request of the scientific management and the overall tendency of thesocial development, this thesis believes, the relationship between the governmentand the community should be defined according to the principles of clear contactsurface, function division orientation and equal status. Next, an interactive andcooperative relationship must be established between the government and thecommunity. The operation of the community is not only its own business but alsorelated to the government functions. No matter what pattern is adopted, thegovernment leading pattern, the community autonomous pattern, or the mix pattern,the government and the community are a throughout pair of interaction collaboratorin the construction, management and development of the community. Therefore, thegovernment and community's functions must be further defined, and the harmoniousinteraction and collaborations between the government and the community shouldbe established. On the one hand, the government should positively respond to the community's demand, and strengthen supervision over the community's managementwhile supporting and impelling the community to deal with its own affairsindependently; On the other hand, the community should positively implement thegovernment's intention, help the government to carry out community constructionand supervisory work, and display its functions of restriction and surveillanceof the government. Moreover, among the government and community relations, thegovernment administrative authority and the community autonomous rights shouldboth be limited, the government is a limited government, and the community is alimited community.The fifth is the goal problem. This thesis believes that the overall goal ofthe community system construction is to construct a society based on the communitysystem, and analyzes this goal through two angles, including the macroscopic angleand microscopic angle. In the macroscopic system angle, the analysis frame of "thegovernment-market-community" should be adopted to help impel the tripod-framemodern country to come into being. In this tripod frame, the government, the marketand the community are separately the main operation platforms of the politicalsystem, the economical system and the social system. The political system and theeconomical system, or the government and the market, both serve the social systemor the community. They are both the tools to impel the development of the socialsystem or the community. The government which pursues efficiency and order andthe market which pursues wealth and benefit must finally obey and serve the societywhich pursues human nature and emotions. In the microscopic operation angle, thepresent paper believes, to construct a society based on the community system withdefined power and multiple governance, we must not only construct an overallpattern with the political system, the economical system and the social systemwhich are functionally separated, but also establish "the government-market-community" frame with defined power and rights. What's more, the presentinternal operation mechanism of the society should be transformed, the politicaloperation mechanism of the community should be socialized, the management of thecommon business of the community should be democratized, and the managing modeof the community welfare undertakings should be privatized. At the same time,according to the spirit, principle, and values of the traditional village community,the modern community and even the whole society based on the community system shouldbe constructed and transformed with humanities and turned into a humanity space, so as to promote the harmony of the community or even the whole society.The sixth is the measure problem. Links to the reality of the constructionpractices of the urban community, this thesis systematically analyzes four mainmeasures to be taken to construct the society based on the community system: Firstis the inheritance and transformation of the neighborhoods. In the angle ofscientific management and social development, the neighborhood and resident systemhave seriously lagged behind, and the intrinsic flaw of the neighborhood andresident system appears more and more prominent, so a fundamental transformationshould be carried on immediately. On the one hand, the relative organizations andthe work resources should be inherited. On the other hand, a reform must be carriedon gradually to advance the shift of social functions from neighborhoods to societyand community, and finally from a society which depends on the neighborhood andresident system to a society based on communities. Second is the growth andreproduction of social organizations. The reason why the neighborhood and residentsystem can obtain the ultra conventional development these years, why theadministrative machinery system and personnel organization can rapidly inflate,and why the neighborhood office can evolve into level of accurate officialorganizations, is that the social organizations are immature, the society is notwell organized, and the social self-control ability is insufficient. The keymeasure to construct a society based on the community system is to cultivate thesocial organizations. Because of this, China needs to build an atmosphere of agood system, to promote the independent development abilities of the socialorganizations, and to strengthen the supervision and guidance of socialorganizations. Third is the mechanism transformation and improvement. Along withthe gradual transition of China's grassroots management system from theneighborhood and resident system to the community system, the government graduallywithdraws from the present partial social management and service domain. In thisprocess, the original community operation mechanism also will gradually lose itsfoundation, and will have to impel the community to develop stably and continuouslyby new operation mechanism, therefore the society division of labor and cooperationmechanism need gradually to be established, the transformation of the operationmechanism of the public service should speed up, the financial resource investmentmechanism of the community construction should be normalized, and voluntaryparticipation mechanism of community affairs should be established and perfected. Fourth is the examination and creating of laws and systems. With the adjustmentof the relationship between the government and society, and with the change ofthe management system and operation mechanism, the original laws and systemsmatched with neighborhood and resident system need at the right moment to makethe corresponding adjustment. Some need to be revised, and some needs to beabolished. Adapt to the new demand of the society based on communities, new lawsand systems need to be found so as to affirm achievements of the communitymanagement system and the operation mechanism innovation at the right moment,to define the role of each main body, and the responsibility jurisdiction whichinvolves to the new system and mechanism between right and duty relations ,andto guarantee the new system and mechanism function stably and orderly.