Model China--A Study On The Activity Of Setting Models In The Contemporary Chinese Society

There is profound tradition of"rule by virtue"in China. The activity of setting models is a kind of social phenomena with Chinese characteristics of politics and morality, and it also meets the need of political-moral operation for authoritative organizations to some extent. The activity of setting models played an important role during the long historical periods. It attracts extensive attention that its effects are impacted, and even become weakening continuously in certain aspects with the comprehensive social transition in China. In the dissertation we study the activity of setting models from the perspectives of social evaluation and symbolic power. The emphases are as follows: exploring its role and mechanism, analyzing its changes and reasons, and revealing its essence as symbolic power.There are a lot of questions to study when we investigate the activity of setting models as social facts in China. The following five are the most important among all the questions. The first is the relations between the cultural tradition and the activity of setting models, the cultural origin to"rule by models";the second is the historical connections between the social changes and the activity of setting models, seeking its evolution law so as to evaluate it based on the specific conditions;the third is the relationship between the activity of setting models and power, the role of power and its effects;the fourth is the operation mechanism of the activity of setting models, especially the operation of authoritative organizations;the fifth is the relationship between the activity of setting models and social administration, analysis of the changes of its social effects. We mainly adopt the literature research method, interview method, comparative method and typical case analysis method in the dissertation.The activity of setting models in contemporary China is the inheritance and development of the tradition. The dissertation connects the reality and the tradition, combs the relations between the cultural tradition and the activity of setting models and reveals the cultural origin to"rule by models". As a power operation way, the activity of setting models mainly originated from the tradition of the Great Unification, moral cultivation, and obligation values, and it also has close relations with the Jingbiao system."Model China"embodies Chinese moralization politics essentially. It is the concrete expression to the cultural tradition of"rule by virtue"in China and it is also the need of"rule by virtue"for the authoritative organizations.From the perspective of social cultural changes, it analyzes the activities of setting models at different periods in contemporary China, including the revolutionary war period, the previous reform and opening period and the era of reform and opening, and explores the internal relationship between social cultural changes and the activity of setting models. We research it from the perspective of power, focus on discussing the functions of the activity of setting models in the aspects of the political and social mobilization, political socialization, discipline and rewards or punishment, discourse and social memory. We reveal the relations between the activity of setting models and power, the role of power and its effects. The activity of setting models becomes the operation mechanism of social power.For the first time, the dissertation interprets the activity of setting models in the contemporary China from the perspective of social evaluation and the relevant theories such as the symbolic power theory, etc. The activity of setting models is a kind of evaluating activities by authoritative organizations, a fundamental social administration method for values propaganda and inculcation, and an important integration technique to politics and society. The successful operation of the activities of setting models needs the masses evaluating activities, and the organic combination of authoritative organization's evaluation with the masses evaluation. The activity of setting models is a kind of power operation mechanism and it plays a role as symbolic power. It propagates the authoritative organization's evaluating will into the society by the form of model symbol, to make the masses accept the authoritative organization's will and the social mainstream ideology imperceptibly. In the process of setting models, the authoritative organizations, models themselves and the masses interact on each other. What behind the interaction is the domination of interests. The power operation of the authoritative organizations needs the models as symbol which may transform into the political capital, economic capital or social capital for themselves, while the masses learn from the models tactful, actively or negatively as the case may be. As a kind of political cultural tradition,the activity of setting models will always continue in the guidance of Chinese ideology logic.With the social transition, the effect of setting models also has profound changes. It is considered in the academic circles that the social effects of the activity become weakening seriously after the reform and opening, but we don't think so. In my opinion, it faces serious challenge indeed, but the influence to different models is various. It also brings new opportunities. Many factors affect its social effects, but the basic reason is the social transition. The deficiency on the way and method deserves reflection by the authoritative organizations. In the background of civil society construction, the authoritative organizations should set new types of models to meet the need of the future civil society and keep up with the trend of the history, and improve the technology for setting models to make it more effective.