Global Governance and National Governance:Two Strategic Considerations by Contemporary China

By Cai Tuo, China Social Sciences



Global Governance and National Governance:Two Strategic Considerations by Contemporary China

By Cai Tuo, China Social Sciences

Preface

Since the 1980s, governance has increasingly penetrated into the theory and practice of human activities, and has undoubtedly obtained the theoretical status as the concepts of globalization, global issues, public administration, public management, public policy, government reform and other concepts become integrated.

This paper is based on the two strategic considerations of contemporary China, from the perspective of overall, interactive and coordinate global governance and national governance, analyzes the significance of global governance and national governance on contemporary China, and the concrete connotation and performance of the overall and interactive global governance and national governance.

Governance is a holistic governance

The theory origin of governance, some scholars believe, can be traced back to ancient Latin and ancient Greek wording. But more views hold that it started in the 18th Century as a French word "gouvernance" was taken over and turned it into governance by English, and used in a variety of contexts. It can be seen that any influential concept, theory, or even a term has its historical process of evolution and governance is not an exception. And it is in the study of academic history that we can see that domestic governance has been gradually expanded to international governance, and further to global governance, from market governance, rural governance, and urban governance in localities and areas towards a comprehensive and integrated administrative governance, and national governance, increasingly showing relatively fresh and rich characteristics, and reflecting the core and essence of governance.

Because of the academic perspectives and different focuses, understanding and interpretation about the management of the causes, classification and characteristics, essence, practical achievements and problems are not the same. Based on this, this paper argues that in the course of considering, understanding, interpreting and practicing governance, only adhering to the following few unity, can understanding and grasping the whole picture of governance against the backdrop of globalization, especially the holistic nature of governance be more profound and more complete.

Value rationality embodies the pursuit of the humanitarian values, the longing for meaningful life, and the preference of social ethics. Governance, whether it is national governance or global governance, faces the problem of who to govern, what to govern, and how to govern, but also why to govern, i.e. also inevitably questioning the purpose and significance of governance. From the domestic perspective, governance should be distinguished from the government hierarchy system and mandatory management system, while from the international perspective, globalism be advocated in terms of value and concept in order to be distinguished from government centralism. And of course, stressing and attaching importance of social and global role in no way means denying the state and government role in practice. From the perspective of reality and practice, fully considering and paying attention to the special status and function of state and the government in governance is concerned and preferred by instrumental rationality.

Instrumental rationality is a kind of thinking mode attaching importance to means, stressing effects and favoring technology, and is concerned with how to realize people's ideal and achieve the expected goal. From the perspective of governance, the consideration and system as well as technical arrangements of instrumental rationality are undoubtedly necessary and reasonable. In order to achieve the best governance of domestic and international public affairs, to construct a fair and reasonable order and environment suitable for human survival, and to promote the all-round development of human beings, the operability, controllability and sustainability must be guaranteed in the governance process from the perspective of the material foundation, technological means, institutional arrangements and policy guidance, otherwise the purpose and ideal of governance is like a castle in the air. So it is in this sense that the instrumental rationality is the premise of value rationality. In fact, as we talk about or study corporate governance, market governance, urban governance, local governance, welfare state governance, public governance or international governance, we base ourselves more on instrumental rationality. Therefore, the instrumental rationality has a significant role in improving governance capacity, and governance effect, and is an indispensable aspect to examine and understand the governance. Of course, we must guard against the over-expansion of instrumental rationality in order to prevent it from going into the technology first and the institutional worship, and prevent us from forgetting the value pursued by the humanistic spirit.

Standard appeal emphasizes the natural essence, is a kind of thinking based on reality, examining things from the perspective of standards and ethics, and guiding people to pursue an ideal world and a better future. This feature is also fully reflected in the process of governance. Many overseas scholars have done research on the civil society, cosmopolitanism, the third road, globalism, globalization, just name a few, which are the most typical standards analysis on governance, embody a human understanding of the essence, tropism, and forward-looking of governance, and express confirmation of the new quality of human social life, advocacy of the new human civilization and expectation of more perfect human nature. It is these standard appeal and analysis that inspire people to forge ahead in the arduous and tortuous governance process. The loss of standard normative demands and the missed companionship is tantamount to declaring the demise of human nature.

The practical demands emphasize the objective analysis based on the real situation and problems, and then put forward operational measures, and make rational and reasonable institutional arrangements. Practice demands in the process of governance are in the largest number, and have the characteristics of urgency and conflict, etc., which is more likely to attract people's attention. For example, in the domestic governance, how to deal with the relationship among government, market and society, how to coordinate the relationship between fairness and efficiency, how to solve the contradiction between development and environmental protection, how to determine the central and local power, how to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor, and cultivate the middle class etc.. The performance of a country's governance as well as the stability and harmony of the social order, to a great extent, depend on the timely response to these problems and the proper settlement. Similarly, the international governance will inevitably involve coordination of different actors’ status, rights and interests in international relations, how to overcome the inhumane aspect of globalization in order to prevent global-level polarization; how to get rid of injustice and unfairness in the existing international system in order to improve the international mechanism and the international order; how to build more channels and ways in order to ensure the vast majority of developing countries and global civil societies to participate in the global governance with more security and more influence.

However, normative standard demands and practical demands must maintain the necessary balance. The ideal, ethical and leading characters of normative standard demands are the internal impetus of development of human civilization, while pragmatism and feasibility of the practical demands are the guarantee and ladder to achieve the ideal of mankind, both of which are indispensable.

Governance is originated from domestic governance, so to closely examine governance must first focus on domestic governance. As a new way to manage public affairs, the governance took on the historical stage in the reform waves to respond to the crisis of the welfare state and the reflection of Keynesism in the 1980s. The rise of governance is undoubtedly a new choice beyond the market and the country's imperfect combination.1The governance has become the third way and the choice of managing public affairs, reflecting further awareness of social complexity, interaction and mobility. Especially since the 1990s, globalization and global problems have highlighted the above new features.

From the international perspective, the governmental factor faced by governance process is how nation-states recognize and respond to the increasing number of trans-national cross-border and cross-government issues. The governance at international level has no central government in a domestic sense, so dialogue and coordination among government, market, and society is more complex and diverse as well as uncertain. In addition, governance at the international level can also be divided into international governance and global governance, the latter of which is the extension and expansion of the former. Global governance is a derivative for globalization and global problems, and its subject is no longer the nation-state alone, but also includes the market (private enterprises, transnational corporations) and society. In other words, at the stage of international governance, the market and society are the objects to be managed -- the object of governance, while at the stage of global governance, the market and the society are both the object of governance and the subject of governance.

But it must be admitted that in the era of globalization, domestic governance and international governance are becoming more and more interdependent, permeable and interactive. While respecting the relative independence for domestic governance and international governance, people are more needed to consciously break the boundaries between the two, examine and command domestic governance and international governance in integrity, or the existing fragmented awareness of governance can only lead to a dilemma of governance in practice.

Two strategic considerations by contemporary China

Paying attention to the holistic nature of the world, and emphasizing problem-shooting and policy-making from the international and domestic overall situations is one of the major changes of China's thinking and concept since the reform and opening up. Especially since the 18th CPC National Congress, both concepts of global governance and national governance are written into important documents of the Party and Government, advancing the diplomatic work and promoting the lofty cause of peace and development for mankind. The Report to the 18thCPC National Congress states to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with various countries, and to promote reform of global governance mechanism; to adhere to the balance between right and duty and actively participate in global economic governance.2The third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee clearly points out that the overall goal of comprehensively deepening the reform is to improve and develop the socialist system with the Chinese characteristics, and promote modernization of national governance system and governance capacity.3Thus, global governance and national governance have acquired the unprecedented strategic importance, and become the two major profound strategic considerations of contemporary China. Of course, whether global governance has the importance to influence the strategic orientation of contemporary China depends on the role and value of the two governances for Chinese modernization.

From the perspective of the relationship between China and the world, the growing and rising contemporary China in the process of reform and opening up has achieved a leading economic scale and aggregate in the world, gradually improved its diplomatic status in international affairs, but is also given more responsibility and hope by the international community. Therefore, active participation in global governance is of special significance to contemporary China.

, and is helpful to dispel the suspicions and misunderstandings on China by the current international community. Global governance is the choice of contemporary human society, which is carried out under the framework of the existing international system. Active participation in global governance means recognition of the legitimacy and authority of the United Nations and the international law, means in agreement of the existing international system and international order, and acts as a reformer rather than a revolutionary in international affairs and works for improvement rather than challenge. The 18th CPC National Congress documents clearly state Chinese active participation in global governance, which obviously is helpful to create a more conducive atmosphere for China to participate in international affairs.

and is helpful to resolve criticism by the international community on China's under- participation. Global governance depends on the active participation of the various actors, and particularly relies on more global public goods provided by nation-states. The provision and management of global public goods is an important guarantee for implementing global governance, and is also an effective way to deepen global governance. Global public goods include both the material aspect (such as funds, physical goods, etc.), and also the institutions and concepts aspect (such as international mechanism, new ideas and values, etc.). Having increased the contributions to the United Nations, provided special funds to govern the global climate warming, created the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Boao Forum for Asia, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the Belt and Road Fund, advocated a harmonious world, the humankind community of shared destiny, all these show that China has been and is making efforts in providing global public goods. But we must note while we carefully adhere to positioning China still as the largest developing country, also need to use a more open global vision to examine the expanding impact and the corresponding influence of a large economy on the world.

, and to promote progress of mankind, to help raise the moral high ground, to win respect of the international community, and to lead development of human beings. The fact that global governance is distinguished from traditional domestic and international governance is its essence to promote human integrity doctrine and common interests doctrine. It extends the publicity character to the whole world and no longer limits it to one country, and upgrades the altruism to the whole humankind rather than a group. The emphasis of contemporary China on safeguarding the common interests of mankind, adhering to mutually beneficial and win-win outcome, and its call and advocacy to build a mankind community of shared destiny, all reflect this concept and demand. Only taking active participation in global governance process, and constantly advocating and practicing new concepts on human holism and common interests, can the realist fetters in the contemporary international relations be broken, confrontation and conflict be gradually weakened and eliminated, and humankind be guided to the future of harmony and symbiosis.

In short, whether from the international reality China is facing, or from the pursuit of the concept and value China should establish, active participation in global governance is a strategic consideration.

In general, state governance refers to the governance within a nation-state, that is the domestic governance, and corresponding with the international governance and global governance, which is beyond the scope of a country. Domestic governance involves many fields such as politics, economy, society, culture, military and so on, and is an all-dimensional and comprehensive governance.

State governance is given a specific connotation and the Chinese characteristics, which is completed by the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee. Comrade Xi Jinping in his speech at the second meeting of the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee said that state governance is no longer the general sense of domestic governance, but another strategic direction for contemporary China.

the universal issues that affect the survival and development of humankind, reflecting the character of keeping up with the times and the ability to adaptation. Needless to say, during the early rise of governance in the 1990s, in order to overcome the disadvantages of the government failure and market failure, the governance emphasizes more social central concept, which leads to a tendency to denationalization. But practice has proved that either the traditional national centralism, or the one-sided social centralism will cause chaos of public affairs and social instability. To all-dimensionally and systematically strengthen the institution building of national governance with emphasis on improving the ability of national governance is the specific choice and concrete goal for contemporary China to rationally advance national governance. Of course, national governance cannot be limited to the national capacity-building in the view of instrumental rationality, meanwhile attention must also be given to the rule of law and democracy construction in the national governance process, i.e. value rationality cannot be ignored and forgotten in the national governance process.

, which will help to genuinely implement the rule of law and the ruling in accordance with the Constitution. Strengthening the construction of the rule of law is the gravity most important for contemporary China to manage domestic affairs. The core of national governance is to strengthen the system construction, and the core of the system construction is undoubtedly relied on establishment and operation of a complete set of legal systems and norms from constitution to judiciary, to administrative laws and so on.

and to better benefit China and the world. The essence of modernizing national governance is to build a modern country. And a modern country, in addition to the requirements of the corresponding hard power (mainly the level of economic development and military strength), more importantly has soft power, embodied in effective operation of rational democratic, legitimate, humanitarian, fair and harmonious institutional arrangements in the fields of politics, law, society and culture as well as ethical moral to be self-consciously followed. Contemporary China's national governance is to face up to this problem, and to upgrade China's soft power comprehensively. Only as itself achieves comprehensive civilization, can it have more say, a greater impact, and especially the attractive system and the value in the world, which not only benefits the Chinese nation, but also the entire humankind .

Overall Coordination between Global Governance and National Governance

As China's two major strategic considerations, global governance and national governance must be overall-planned and coordinated from the perspective of the interconnection and interaction between the two. The current people's awareness is still far from self-conscious and clear-cut. Therefore, it is necessary to further explore the interaction and coordination between global governance and national governance.

Global governance is based on the governance of human public affairs, whose control and influence of governance are mainly embodied in the object, mechanism, concept and the interests considerations of governance, etc..

In terms of governance goal, the global governance is to a large extent the governance of global issues, but also can be internalized as states’ governance of various global threats to mankind. This kind of internalized global governance is a phenomenon domestically, but bears significance world-wide. Since the reform and opening up, China's local governments for poverty alleviation, prevention and control of AIDS, drug control, environmental protection and other fields have carried out multi-level cross-border cooperation projects. The implementation of these projects and achievements have not only effectively curbed the global problems contagion, but, with the aid of international society’s concepts, capital, technology, human resources, also played an important role for China to mobilize people’s power together with the government to deal with economic, social and environmental problems, etc., which fully reflects the close relationship between global governance and national governance.4

In terms of mechanism and institution of governance, the mechanism and institution of global governance are established for the public affairs and the problem faced by the contemporary humankind, and should be recognized by national governance. For example, financial supervision issue reflected by the international financial crisis, the trade policy transparency issue required by the world trade, environmental standards and quality standards, etc., all states in their own national governance process need to coordinate with corresponding norms of global governance, and promote the standardized implementation of these norms.

In terms of value and concept of governance, global governance can be used for reference to the concept of national governance. National governance requires the guidance of advanced value and concept, and the sound value and concept, on the one hand, comes from its own creation and practice, on the other hand, comes from the reference to the advanced achievements of human civilization. Global governance is often leading the advanced value and concept. For example, in view of the global warming and energy shortage, in recent years, low carbon economy and green economy have become a new concept and value. China is also impacted by these concepts, has not only highly recognized them, but also implemented them in the strategy for economic and social development. The Political Report to the 18thCPC National Congress clearly points out that vigorously promoting the green, recycling, low-carbon development.5Based on the above concepts, China puts forward accelerating green, recycling and low-carbon economy, establishes a "red-­line control system", and adopts and strictly enforces measures on resource consumption cap-limit, environmental quality bottom line, and ecological protection red line. This fully shows that China is not only in recognition of, but also takes positive action to develop low-carbon economy in the practice of national governance, reflecting the norms and leading role of the global governance concept.

In short, national governance is the national governance in the global governance process, and the modernization of national governance system and governance capacity should contain the rational cognition and practice coordination of global governance. Actively involving in the process of global governance, China should apply sound and appropriate concepts and mechanisms of global governance in combination with China’s reality, advancing organic integration and interaction between the two, and the overall deepening the process of governance.

Global governance is collectively consulted and managed governance by diverse actors, and the cooperation governance to mutually overcome the national centralism and social centralism by state and non-state actors. The level and degree of modernized national governance is the most important factor to determine the level and degree of global governance. Although there are many reasons for the difficulties currently faced by the global governance, yet, the most critical is still probably that the situation and level of national governance is far from satisfactory. Therefore, it is very wise and important for China to put forward the vigorous building of China's national governance system and governance capacity.

The national governance system includes value, authority decision-making, administrative enforcement, economic development and social construction, etc. Reasonable configuration and benign operation of these institutional mechanisms determine the modernization level of national governance, which can boost and deepen global governance. This is because:

The modernization of values system refers to a human rational, reasonable, open, and ethical cognition of the contemporary humankind's status quo and future of its survival and development as well as the pursuit of value and purpose, reflecting people's humanity, civilization and keeping up with the times. From the perspective of the global governance interconnections, the value and concept modernization also involves a number of new dimensions and problems, such as the concept of civilization, the concept of globalism, concept of sustainable development, the concept of public rationality and so on. These new ideas highlight the relationship between nation-state and humankind, between nationalism and globalism, between national rationality and human rationality, between national interests and humankind interests, between current generation and future generations, and between egoism and altruism, etc.; require, from the angle of reflection, extending the modern values from the national perspective to the human perspective, and upgrading the national centralism to human centralism, and examining global issues and interdependence reality faced in the globalization era with more open, macro-thinking, more forward-looking and humanistic mind. With these modernized concepts, a state will have a more profound understanding and recognition of global governance, and its active participation in global governance becomes a conscious choice.

commands the political role and international influence in the global governance. The modernization of the authoritative decision-making system and the administrative execution system are related to the design and operation of a political and a legal system, the legitimacy of power, authority and limit of power organs, the government power-list and administrative efficiency, guaranteeing the rights of citizens, the authority of the Constitution and the validity of the rule of law, and judiciary justice. Only with a solid foundation in the aspect of democracy and the rule of law, can a state achieve the democratic, scientific and efficient ruling, reflect the governance ability of public affairs, get close to or reach the ideal effect of public affairs governance, which highlights the system and civilization attraction. It is this attraction that constitutes the foundation to enhance the prestige and influence of a state in the global governance, and to create a possible space to play a more important role and critical role in the global governance.

The core of modernization of economic development system is to properly handle the relationship between government and market, clearly identify the development orientation for the market economy, and maximize the potential of market and the role played by market. As far as contemporary China goes, its economic aggregate, trade, finance, outbound investment are among the best ranking in the world, it has become a recognized world economic power, and plays a critical role in the global economic governance. As a result of this, it is the global economic governance that China first discuses and identifies with. Especially the performance and contribution in coping with the crisis by China since 2008 international financial crisis enhances more international recognition of China’s participation in and even leading global economic governance, the establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the Belt and Road Fund will upgrade this recognition to a new stage.

. The modernization of social development system mainly refers to modernization of the people's livelihood service system, social security system and social governance, related to assurance of citizens’ extensive rights, coordination of social contradictions and stimulating social vitality, the core of which is to properly deal with the relationship between government and society. The stability of a country depends on the political integrity, strong legitimacy, the sound rule of law; while a social vitality depends on the ability to provide a comprehensive, safe, and orderly institutional guarantee for people in order to help their self- management and engagement in a variety of creative activities. Obviously, in this sense, the importance of the modernization of social construction system is no less than that of the above system, the difficulty can be imagined.

Conclusion

The era of globalization, in a sense, is also an era of governance, which requires that the contemporary humankind examine and deal with the increasingly complex, diverse and changing domestic and international public affairs from the perspective of governance. And global governance and national governance are the universal problems faced by humankind in 21st Century, which is particularly important and urgent to contemporary China, and bears very unique significance for contemporary China to realize social transformation, promote the construction of modernization, and to stand up in the world of nations with the image of civilization, democracy, the rule of law, and harmony.

(Abridged translation of the article from http://www. zlzx.org, No. 6, 2016 )

Footnotes:

1.Wang Shizong: "Governance Theory and its Chinese Adaptation", Hangzhou, Zhejiang University Press, 2009, p.19.

2.Hu Jintao, "Unswervingly March forward along the Road of Socialism with the Chinese Characteristics and Strive to build a Moderately Prosperous Society in all Respects", the Party Literature Research Center, CCCPC, the 18th CPC Important Documents Series Vol. I., Beijing, Central Party Literature Press, 2014, p.4 and p.37.

3. The "CPCCC Decision on Some Major Issues Concerning Comprehensively Deepening Reform", the Party Literature Research Center, CCCPC, the 18th CPC Important Documents Series, Vol. I., Beijing, Central Party Literature Press, 2014, p.512.

4.The global governance will be internalized in detail for the national governance, Cai Tuo, "Globalism and Nationalism", China Social Science, No.3, 2000.

5. Hu Jintao, "Unswervingly March forward along the Road of Socialism with the Chinese Characteristics and Strive to build a Moderately Prosperous Society in all Respects", the 18th CPC Important Documents Series Vol. I., p.31.