Construction of Rural Community Governance Path: Based on the Empirical Analysis of Chaoyang Community in Dazhou, Sichuan

Jianghua HE

Sichuan University of Arts and Science, Dazhou 635000, China

Abstract Promoting community governance and service innovation is the theme of the times for comprehensively deepening reforms in the field of community construction. The stability and development of the most basic rural community is another important task of community governance. The current rural social governance work is extremely weak, seriously affecting the process of the entire social governance work. Constructing the path of rural community governance has become an important task for the majority of theoretical workers and grassroots practitioners. Taking Chaoyang Community, Tongchuan District, Dazhou, Sichuan Province as an example, with the goal of creating a community with the rule of law, peace, harmony, beauty and livability, a new model and new path to build community governance is proposed in this article.

Key words Community governance, Rural area, Path construction

1 Introduction

The community is the basic unit of social governance. Promoting community governance and service innovation is the theme of the times for comprehensively deepening reforms in the field of community construction. China is a big agricultural country. In China, agriculture is the primary industry, farmers are the largest group, and the countryside is the most basic community. The stability and development of rural areas is always an important task that affects the overall situation. Therefore, strengthening the governance of rural communities is the foundation and an important part of the entire social governance. The governance of rural communities involves multiple issues, and the work content overlaps with each other. Whether the community governance is good or not directly affects and concerns the vital interests of residents. Effective community governance means that residents can live and work in peace, happiness and health to send out a more sense of identity and belonging to the community, so that the government is functioning and the society is harmonious. If the community governance is lagging, problems will arise, people’s grievances will be boiling, and politics and society will be unrest. The conflicts in community governance will eventually turn into conflicts between officials and people, and between the party and the masses. If things go on like this, it will seriously endanger social stability and political stability. Therefore, strengthening research on community comprehensive governance mechanism and path construction and effectively playing the leading role of party building is the inevitable requirement to thoroughly implement the spirit of the 19th CPC National Congress, strengthen and innovate social governance, build a grassroots governance system, and modernize governance capabilities, and is also an inevitable choice for building a modern and powerful socialist country in the new era[1]. China’s theoretical and practical exploration of rural governance is still in its infancy. The current rural social governance work is extremely weak, seriously affecting the process of the entire social governance work. This affects the smooth construction of the new countryside and the construction of a harmonious society in China. Scholars have their own focus on community governance research. Wang Zuoyuan focused on the dilemma of high-rise residential elevator replacement in "community governance ‘three governance’ coupling paths". Liu Xue studied the emotional boundaries of regional communities in "keeping neighbors". In "community governance in the new era", Zhao Jian focused on the study of community space planning. Existing studies have focused on the key and difficult issues in community governance, but systematic pattern and path have not been formed[2-3]. To this end, the systematic construction of the path of rural community governance has become an important task for the majority of theoretical workers and grassroots practitioners. Taking Chaoyang Community in Dazhou, Sichuan as an example, the governance path of rural communities is studied in this article.

2 Governance status of Chaoyang community

Chaoyang Community is a typical community with characteristics of urban and rural integration under the jurisdiction of Tongchuan District. Since the implementation of the community management system reform, an innovative community governance model of "one committee, one station, one residence and one center" has been proposed, and the community system is basically established. The government has increased funding, and the community service facilities has been gradually improved. Two teams have been developed and strengthened, one is the community committee, and the other is social worker team, who effectively assists the government in its work. As a result, the quality and professionalism of the services is improved, the team of community talents continues to grow, and the community service function continues to strengthen. Community social organizations continue to develop. The community service station solves the cross-cutting issues in party, government, and community. The "three-community linkage" has achieved initial results, but there are also poor construction quality, unreasonable design, and unscientific planning in residential resettlement communities, resulting in incomplete supporting facilities, delayed resolution of transfer of housing property rights and other common people’s concerns. Developers’ violations of regulations, illegal construction, false statements,etc. have led to difficulties in matching services and contradictions in the later period. Problems such as old courtyards and single buildings in disrepair and insufficient infrastructure and public facilities and equipment increase community management operating costs and administrative risks.

3 Difficulties in Chaoyang community governance and causes

Due to the existence of factors such as the diversification of the owner’s identity, the indifference of human relations, the complexity of the interest structure, the absence of government duties, and the benefit of property management, Chaoyang community governance is faced with a series of intricate entanglements and contradictions, leading to frequent occurrence of community diseases, frequent interest games, and the pollution and destruction of social ecology, affecting the quality of life of the community people, and bringing severe challenges and difficulties to grassroots governance. The difficulties of Chaoyang community governance and the causes are mainly manifested in the following aspects.

3.1 The party organization has failed to fully cover, and the leading role of party building has not been fully utilized

Grassroots party organizations are the core force of community governance. Strengthening the organizational coverage and work coverage of the party organization in the community is an important part of the comprehensive improvement of the party building quality system project. Only by doing well in the community party building work, can the harmony of the community be effectively promoted and can the development of the community be led. But, at present, due to insufficient funding for community party building, the Chaoyang community party organization basically has a two-level structure, namely the community party branch and the community joint branch. The organizational coverage fails to extend to the end, making it difficult for the party’s organizational system to intervene and resolve many conflicts in the community in a timely and effective manner. Simultaneously, the party member dual-register system and the identity revealing system are not implemented enough; there is also a lack of effective evaluation and management mechanisms for mobile party members and dual-registered party members; and the coverage of party organizations at the grassroots level is insufficient, making it difficult for the red engine to function and community conflicts to be resolved effectively.

3.2 Social organizations have been developed poorly, and their ability to participate in community governance is insufficientSocial organizations are charitable, service-oriented, and voluntary, and are a unique force in community governance. It can effectively integrate resources, gather strength, make up for shortcomings, stimulate social vitality, and innovate governance mechanisms, playing an important role in the fields of community culture construction, environmental maintenance, old nursing, preschool education, social assistance, dispute mediation and community correction. The social organization of Chaoyang community has not been fully developed, with shortcomings of lack of quantity, small scale, insufficient capacity, incomplete functions and irregular operation. Their strength to integrate resources is weak, the ability to undertake public services needs to be improved, and the role of collaborative governance is difficult to show. At the same time, the government’s public service fund supply is not in place, and an effective incubation and cultivation mechanism for social organizations, especially social work teams, is absent, leading to poor development of social organizations, insufficient social vitality, lack of position in community governance, and incapability to effectively build a community linkage governance mechanism.

3.3 The main body of the community has a weak sense of community and lack of cooperative spiritThe diversity of community entities determines that community governance requires joint collaboration. The degree of attention and participation of owners and residents to community public affairs and their recognition of the community directly determines the success or failure of community governance. However, as the community is a "stranger society" and the population is highly heterogeneous, there are great differences in customs, value orientation, career development, behavior patterns,etc., and residents have less interaction with each other and less integration. At the same time, the residents, the main body of the community, have their own jobs, and their participation in community public affairs will conflict with their own jobs and time. Some are unwilling to participate in community affairs for their own interests, leading to the decentralization and atomization of community residents, lack of sense of ownership, low sense of community, and lack of homeland feelings and public welfare spirit. Some owners are too selfish or not aware of laws and regulations, deliberately resisting the normal work of the community, and they tend to choose irrational or illegal means to solve problems, causing difficulties in community governance.

4 Basic principles of Chaoyang community governance

TheOpinionsoftheCentralCommitteeoftheCommunistPartyofChinaandtheStateCouncilonStrengtheningandImprovingUrbanandRuralCommunityGovernanceclearly stated that in order to effectively improve the governance level of urban and rural communities, it is necessary to "adhere to the leadership of the party and consolidate the foundation", "adhere to people-oriented, serve the people", "insist on reform and innovation, and govern by law", "adhere to the overall planning of urban and rural areas, coordinate development", "adhere to act according to local conditions, highlight characteristics" and other principles, making efforts to build urban and rural communities into a harmonious, orderly, green, civilized, innovative, compatible, co-construction and shared happy homes. In order to build a happy homeland of Chaoyang, which is good-neighborly, harmonious and peaceful, it is necessary to straighten out the main body relationship in the community, clarify responsibilities, multiple co-governance, govern collaboratively and exert force targetedly, so as to build a community governance pattern featuring co-construction, co-governance and sharing. To this end, Chaoyang community governance should adhere to the following basic principles.

4.1 Taking "being led by party building" as the key link

Community governance must fully reflect the principle of being led by the party, make efforts to expand the party’s organizational and work coverage, and enhance the organizational strength of community party organizations, thereby building community party organizations into a red engine and battle fortress that leads community governance.

4.2 Focusing on "being centered by people"Community governance should fully reflect the development thinking of being centered by people. The vision planning, system design, activity plan, governance model,etc. of community development must be people-oriented, so that community residents and owners can enjoy more, more practical and broader sense of gain, happiness, and security.

4.3 Taking "acting according to local conditions" as measurementCommunity governance focuses on targeted policy implementation. Under the premise of following basic governance rules, it is necessary to fully consider the actual situation of the community’s resource endowments, basic conditions, and humanistic characteristics, and adhere to formulating different governance models according to different community categories, making them unique and appropriate and the work effective.

4.4 Being based on the principle of "co-governance and sharing"Community governance should adhere to the principles of co-construction, multiple co-governance, and benefit sharing, fully absorb power, integrate resources, incubate society, and stimulate vitality, in order to build the community into a community of life and a community of interests for residents.

5 Path construction of Chaoyang community governance

In order to comprehensively improve the rule of law and scientific and refined level of Chaoyang community governance, the "1456" community governance path (being led by party building, four-power co-governance, five-step discussion and six-regulation consolidation) was constructed according to local conditions, thereby comprehensively promoting the modernization of the community governance system and governance capabilities.

5.1 Upholding the party’s leadership is the core and key for community party building to lead community governanceTo strengthen the guidance and supervision of community party organizations and community residents committees to the diverse subjects of the community, it is explored to optimize community organization settings, strengthen service management, and integrate community party building forces, under the leadership of the community party committee, focusing on the leadership core of the party organization, thereby enhancing the cohesion, combat effectiveness and centripetal force of community party organizations effectively[4].

5.2 Adhering to the co-governance of four powers and building a community co-governance pattern with the four powersIt is necessary to promote the extension and coverage of community party organizations in the community, set up party branches and party branch activity stations in communities where conditions permit, and encourage grassroots party organizations to play a leading role in community governance. In order to smooth the community communication mechanism and solve the problems of community management and rectification, the establishment of a community discussion and consultation committee, as a decision-making body for community public affairs, is explored, to exercise decision-making power, deepen community governance and promote social harmony through discussion and consultation mechanism. The owners’ committee elected by the owners’ meeting is the executive body of the owners’ meeting, and it is responsible for implementing the decisions made by the community discussion and consultation committee. The members of the owners’ committee shall be the owners. A supervisory committee independent of the owners’ committee is explored to be established to represent all owners, supervise the owners’ committee, promote the disclosure of residential and financial affairs in the community, and improve the level of community governance[5].

5.3 Standardizing democratic consultation mechanism with five-step discussion and decision-making processIn order to ensure the standardized operation of the community’s "small and micro power" and promote the development of grassroots democracy, there is an urgent need to build a democratic decision-making and consultation mechanism, and explore the implementation of the "five-step discussion method" in community governance. Thus, the owners and residents’ rights to know, to choose, to participate and to supervise are guaranteed procedurally and systematically. The first step is to propose that all matters involving the interests of community residents. Each subject in the community can raise issues with the community discussion and consultation committee. The second step is to discuss. The director of the discussion and consultation committee convenes members to conduct democratic discussions and open discussions on the proposed issues, and propose and formulate preliminary solutions or implementation suggestions, which are announced to the community owners and residents. The third step is to evaluate. A hearing will be held to accept democratic appraisal from the owners and residents and publicize it to the public. The fourth step is to review. The revised opinions are submitted to the committee for review. The fifth step is to make a resolution. The community’s deliberation opinions are publicized to the public to make a final decision. Relevant entities are ordered or urged to implement.

5.4 Consolidating the system foundation of community governance with six regulationsSystem is the forerunner of action, and the establishment of a complete system is an important guarantee for ensuring the order of community governance, and is conducive to the normalization, institutionalization and standardization of community governance mechanisms. The previous system regulations were long, cumbersome, and difficult to remember, which was not conducive to the implementation and promotion of the system. To this end, simple and understandable language and clear and conspicuous icons are explored to be used to formulate and improve the rules and regulations such asStandardizationManagementMeasuresforPartyBranchWork,ProceduresfortheElectionandWorkofOwnersCommittees,ProceduralRulesforOwnersandResidents,CommunityResidentCivilizationConvention,PropertyServiceConventionandConventionontheActivitiesofCommunitySocialAutonomousOrganizationsand make them easy to operate, concise and easy to understand and remember. At the same time, it is supplemented by artistic and living forms. They are widely publicized and promoted among community residents to internalize the system and regulations and externalize them in action[6].

6 Conclusions

The "1456 community governance path" is aimed to create a governance system for community co-construction, co-governance and sharing. It can effectively stimulate the governance vitality of small communities, improve the modernization of community governance, promote the process of community governance and improve the quality of community life, thereby building an ecologically sound community humanistic and social environment, and consolidating the foundation of social harmony and stability. This path can be tested first in communities with mature conditions to accumulate experience and learn lessons. After revising, it can be promoted again.