A Study on "Fengqiao Experience" from the Perspective of People’s Livelihood

Yuting ZHOU, Peng YANG

School of Marxism, Northwest University of Agriculture and Forestry, Yangling 712100, China

Abstract The "Fengqiao Experience" has risen from the "local experience" in the early days to the "national experience" now. Although it has gone through twists and turns, it is full of exuberant and strong vitality. Fengqiao Experience is the experience of grass-roots mass governance based on people’s livelihood and other factors, so this paper studies the challenges faced by the application of "Fengqiao Experience" and the internal relationship between the experience and people’s livelihood from the perspective of people’s livelihood and summarizes the realization path of carrying forward the "Fengqiao Experience" from the perspective of people’s livelihood. Strengthening the construction of grass-roots Party organizations, taking the mass line and implementing autonomy, rule by virtue and rule by law are the ways to carry forward the "Fengqiao Experience" in the new era, which has certain guiding significance for reality.

Key words Fengqiao Experience, People’s livelihood, Grass-roots social governance

1 Introduction

The research on "Fengqiao Experience" from the perspective of people’s livelihood is not only consistent with the purport of the development of democratic politics in China, but also in line with the requirements of the current grass-roots social governance construction in China. Fengqiao Experience has a history of more than 50 years from its birth to now, and it still has guiding significance to the reality. Not only because it is in line with China’s national conditions and keeps pace with the times, but more importantly, the "Fengqiao Experience" can effectively ease and resolve contradictions and disputes, adjust the balance between the livelihood demand and supply of the people at the grassroots level, and achieve a virtuous circle of grass-roots social governance. Then, from the perspective of people’s livelihood, empirically studying "Fengqiao Experience", analyzing the internal relationship and summing up the realization path has both theoretical and practical significance for grass-roots social governance.

2 Overview of people’s livelihood and connotation of "Fengqiao Experience"

2.1 Connotation of people’s livelihood

2.1.1Understanding of people’s livelihood. As early as the Warring States period, the famous patriotic poet Qu Yuan sighed in Li Sao: "Heaving a long sigh, I brush away my tears. Sad that man’s life should be so beset with hardship." For this reason, Mencius put forward the view: "To a state, the people are the most important thing. The state comes second. The ruler is the least important." These statements and conclusions all imply that as early as in ancient Chinese society, the issue of people’s livelihood has been one of the most important factors for those in power to govern the country and society. At the same time, Dr. Sun Yat-sen put forward the Three Principles of the People (Nationalism, Democracy, the People’s Livelihood) in the face of the social situation in modern China. This undoubtedly shows that from the Chinese traditional people-oriented thought to the people’s livelihood actively put forward by the capitalist class, people’s livelihood has been a word containing the humanistic concept of deep concern for the people since ancient times. In modern society, with the continuous enrichment and accumulation of ideology and experience in governing the country, people’s livelihood not only refers to the lives of the working people, but also refers to the livelihood of a country, all members of society and ordinary people relative to leaders.

Since the reform and opening up, the broad masses of Chinese working people have carried out the great practice of socialist construction under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, which has greatly improved our social and people’s livelihood. However, it has also given rise to many problems, such as the widening gap between the rich and the poor, the destruction of the ecological environment, the lack of spiritual culture, and the intensification of basic livelihood contradictions such as health care, education, and social security. All these realistic livelihood problems are affecting the coordinated development of our society. To this end, the CPC Central Committee has stepped up its efforts to grasp the new changes in the development stage and adopted effective measures to ensure and improve people’s livelihood, thus creating good conditions for promoting common prosperity.

2.1.2Marxist thought on people’s livelihood. Through the dialectical view and critical inheritance of the humanistic spirit and the humanism of the Enlightenment put forward in the European Renaissance, Marx gradually formed his own thought of people’s livelihood. By reading all the manuscripts and works left by Marx, we can clearly find that his whole theoretical system contains rich thoughts on people’s livelihood and concern for people’s livelihood.

First of all, Marx’s thought of people’s livelihood holds that the purpose of social existence and development is the practical activities that people engage in in order to meet the needs of their own survival and life. Therefore, if we want to give full play to the subjective initiative and creative role of the people, and make the people become the main force in promoting social and historical development, the primary premise is that we must meet the basic material needs of the people. Only on the premise of meeting the basic needs of material life will the people have higher needs and desires and realize the continued existence and continuous development of society on the basis of continuously creating more material materials.

Secondly, Marx believes that the reasonable adjustment of productive forces and relations of production is an important way to improve people’s survival and living conditions. In order to effectively solve the problems of people’s livelihood, we must meet the basic needs of the people and realize the material basis of people’s livelihood through "producing materials to meet these needs, namely the production of material life itself"[2]. At the same time, Marx found that in order to obtain more surplus value, capitalists did not hesitate to destroy surplus products and constantly exploit the basic material materials of laborers, resulting in "workers becoming abject pauper, poverty growing faster than population and wealth[3]. For this reason, Marx and Engels believe that in order to solve the problem of the survival and development of the working people and ensure the basic livelihood of the broad masses of workers, the proletarian regime must be established.

Finally, Marx believes that the goal and essence of social development is to explore and achieve man’s all-round and free development. Marx believes that human development and social development are closely related, and only when individuals in the society get all-round and free development, can we realize the all-round and free development of the mankind. Therefore, the realization of the comprehensive liberation and happy development of the mankind has become the highest pursuit and ultimate goal of Marxism on the development of people’s livelihood.

2.2 Overview of the connotation of "Fengqiao Experience"

2.2.1The theoretical origin of "Fengqiao Experience". First, the Marxist view of the political Party.

Marx and Engels think that the Communist Party has the characteristics of being advanced and leading, and it is the "most resolute and always promoting part" of the proletariat[4]. By adhering to the leadership of the Party, we can have a unified action plan and better realize the fundamental interests of the broad masses of the people. Since the 18thNational Congress of the Communist Party of China, the CPC Central Committee with Xi Jinping as the core has put forward a series of important thoughts and judgments on upholding and strengthening the overall leadership of the Party, pointed out the direction of grass-roots social governance, and further enriched and developed the Marxist view of political parties. Fengqiao Experience draws the wisdom of Marxist view of political parties in the practice of grass-roots social governance. By integrating resources and coordinating interests, grass-roots Party organizations can resolve conflicts on the spot and improve the ability of grass-roots social governance.

Second, Marxist view of mass history. Classical Marxist writers agree that the masses are the main body of social history. In carrying out practical activities such as grass-roots social governance, we must recognize the important role of the masses, give full play to their creativity, unswervingly adhere to the "mass line", and strengthen the blood ties between the Party and the masses. Effective grass-roots social governance should give full play to the initiative of the masses, rely on the masses closely and strive for happiness for the broad masses of the people. In addition, in the "Fengqiao Experience", the masses themselves are also an important part of grass-roots social governance. As early as 1963, "mobilizing and relying on the masses" was mentioned in the expression of "Fengqiao Experience", which further affirmed that the mass line must be "present" in social governance, especially "Fengqiao Experience".

2.2.2Main contents of "Fengqiao Experience". The initial "Fengqiao Experience" can be summarized as "solving contradictions on the spot, and ensuring good law and order", which is the social grass-roots governance experience constantly explored by the masses and cadres in Fengqiao Town, Zhuji City, Zhejiang Province in social practice. During the period of reform and opening up, with the development of economy and the widening gap between the rich and the poor, new changes have taken place in grass-roots social governance. Therefore, Fengqiao Town put forward the concept of comprehensive management of social security for the first time in grass-roots social governance, and paid more attention to the reform of criminals. Since 2000, the connotation of "Fengqiao Experience" has been continuously enriched and some advanced working mechanisms have been created. Under the leadership of the cadres of the Party Committee, relying on the strength of the people, we should start to prevent contradictions and disputes from the source, so as to promote the realization of a new pattern of harmonious social governance. After entering a new era, Zhuji City creatively proposed building a grass-roots society integrating "autonomy, rule by virtue and rule by law", and promote the new model of grass-roots social governance to develop towards building a happy and beautiful modern society.

3 Internal relationship between the realization of people’s livelihood and the application of "Fengqiao Experience"

3.1 Taking people’s livelihood as the direction is an inevitable choice to promote the development of "Fengqiao Experience"

3.1.1The "Fengqiao Experience" oriented to people’s livelihood is the concentrated embodiment of the Party’s mass line. Taking the people as the center and putting people first is the concentrated embodiment of the Party’s mass line and the inherent requirement of the people’s nature of Marxism. Promoting people’s livelihood means promoting development[5]. General Secretary has repeatedly emphasized that people’s livelihood plays an important role in China’s social governance. In social grass-roots governance, based on people’s livelihood, safeguarding and improving people’s livelihood and adhering to the mass line are the most direct and effective means to promote the modernization of grass-roots social governance capacity. Fengqiao Experience is the summary and innovation of Fengqiao people about the direction of people’s livelihood, especially the social grass-roots governance. After years of development and precipitation, it has always been at the forefront of the times.

In the new era, China should be good at summing up and innovating the historical significance and great enlightenment of "Fengqiao Experience", pay attention to people’s livelihood in grass-roots social governance, pay attention to people’s feelings and improve people’s livelihood, and never do anything against people’s interests. It is necessary to clarify the purpose of "Fengqiao Experience", take the people’s will as the value pursuit, and take the people’s longing for a better life as the goal, so as to achieve "no absence of services", "no lag behind in services", and "equalization of services", and maintain social harmony and stability. Therefore, promoting the development and promotion of "Fengqiao Experience" from the perspective of people’s livelihood is the concentrated embodiment of the Party’s mass line.

3.1.2People’s livelihood needs are the main driving force for the development of "Fengqiao Experience". Marx pointed out: "Everything people strive for is related to their interests."[6]Interest is the basic driving force of people’s production and life, and people attach great importance to their own rights, so people’s interests (that is, people’s livelihood needs) become the main driving force for the development of "Fengqiao Experience". Fengqiao Experience still has strong vitality after years of development and changes, precisely because it conforms to public opinion and effectively solves the most realistic and direct issues related to the interests of the people. This not only reflects the trend of socialist political development and progress, but also shows that the experience can efficiently help to carry out the construction of socialist people’s livelihood.

Fengqiao Experience contains the concept of deliberative democracy and conforms to the general law of socialist national governance. In the grass-roots society, people have corresponding livelihood problems because of their different demands. In order to better solve the problems and meet their own needs, more and more people will actively participate in social governance. Thus it can be seen that "democracy around us" is undoubtedly the best way to mobilize the people to participate in grass-roots social governance. These problems must be issues of concern to the masses, and it should not be empty talk for the masses to participate in solving these problems. In the process of participating in the settlement, the people can also put forward better opinions and suggestions, which promotes the maximization of democratic participation. People’s democracy is the life of socialism, and socialist deliberative democracy is the unique advantage of China’s socialist democratic politics. Accordingly, the "Fengqiao Experience" itself has strong vitality and unique advantages. Therefore, the people’s livelihood demand is the main driving force for the development of "Fengqiao Experience".

3.2 The promotion of "Fengqiao Experience" is an inevitable requirement for the realization of people’s livelihood

3.2.1Carrying forward the "Fengqiao Experience" is conducive to achieving a balance between demand and supply for people’s livelihood. Entering a new era, China has made great achievements in economic construction and social development. However, with the improvement of people’s living standards, new problems are gradually exposed. The 19thCPC National Congress put forward: "China has steadily solved the problem of food and clothing for more than a billion people, has achieved a well-off society on the whole, and will soon build a well-off society in an all-round way, and the people’s need for a better life is becoming more and more extensive, not only putting forward higher requirements for material and cultural life, but also posing increasing requirements for democracy, the rule by law, fairness, justice, security, and the environment[7]." Thus it can be seen that the current demand and supply of people’s livelihood have not reached a balance, the people’s demand for a better environment is increasing, the problem of equity in education is in urgent need of solution, the number of jobs is urgently needed, and it is urgent to solve medical problems. People are no longer limited to meeting the needs of their own basic survival, and they are more concerned about the livelihood issues related to rights and self-development.

In order to promote the realization of people’s livelihood, the "Fengqiao Experience" must solve the problem of people’s livelihood that the people are most concerned about. Fengqiao Experience is regarded not only as a system of grass-roots social governance at the political level, but also as a conceptual building at the ideological level, and governance at the conceptual level is as important as that at the institutional level. In fact, to carry forward the "Fengqiao Experience" is also the core values of socialism playing a role. The socialist core values give full play to its function of control and enlightenment, so that the spirit of Fengqiao can go deep into the hearts of social members and influence their ideas and behavior. It is more beneficial for dealing with and resolving contradictions and disputes in a peaceful way, and it is also conducive to regulating the demand and supply of people’s livelihood. Therefore, to a certain extent, the "Fengqiao Experience" can ease and resolve the contradiction, realize the equalization of public resources, and thus promote the balance between demand and supply of people’s livelihood.

3.2.2Carrying forward "Fengqiao Experience" is conducive to the realization of fairness and justice in the supply of people’s livelihood. In the final analysis, the issue of people’s livelihood is a related problem caused by the unmet needs of the people in reality. The hierarchy of needs theory put forward by Maslow holds that human needs for survival, security, social interaction, respect and self-realization, are improved in turn, so we can clearly see that livelihood issues are also developing. Nowadays, with the rapid development of productive forces and the continuous improvement of living standards, a basic need for survival is no longer the problem of people’s livelihood. Material life has been enriched and people’s basic physiological needs have been met, which naturally leads to a new spiritual pursuit. With the development of science and technology, people have increasingly close ties, people pay more and more attention to themselves, and the development of social media has led to the enhancement of self-subjectivity. This series of changes and development have prompted people to put forward demands to a higher level. This is the case in terms of people’s livelihood. Just trying to get enough food and clothing has become a thing of the past. People put forward more requirements in education, employment, housing, medical care, old-age care, food safety, living environment and so on.

It is necessary to take the maintenance of overall social stability as the basic task and the promotion of social fairness and justice as the core value pursuit[8]. For this reason, Fengqiao Experience, under the leadership of the Party, calls on the public to actively participate and achieve fairness and justice in the supply of people’s livelihood through the efforts of the government. In the new era, under the requirements of building socialism with Chinese characteristics, Fengqiao Experience insists on keeping pace with the times, constantly stimulating and organizing social forces from all walks of life to participate in grass-roots social governance, and promoting the realization of social fairness and justice and the fairness of the supply of people’s livelihood.

4 Challenges faced by the application of "Fengqiao Experience"

Nowadays, with the continuous development of China’s social and economic features, its connotation has been gradually enriched and perfected from the "Fengqiao Experience" in the initial stage of creation to the "Fengqiao Experience" in the new era. Over the years, the Communist Party of China has maintained close ties with the masses by relying on the mass line. The "Fengqiao Experience" is the concrete practice of implementing the mass line in grass-roots social governance, and it is the main way for us to solve mass problems and the magic weapon to win. However, for grass-roots social governance, whether it is the top-level design of the system or the specific work, there are governance dilemmas that can not be easily ignored. These governance difficulties correspondingly bring challenges to the application and promotion of "Fengqiao Experience" in grass-roots social governance.

4.1 The imbalance in the improvement of people’s livelihood leads to the limitation of governance spaceGrass-roots social governance only covers the regional spatial structure, but ignores the hidden social relations and social dimensions behind the space in the traditional social life, such as folklore, and mores. Since the reform and opening up, with the proposal of China’s urbanization construction and rural revitalization policy, the mobility of urban and rural population has been greatly enhanced. Grass-roots people are also gradually re-gathered and summarized with their own income, occupation, policy guidance and even the level of education, and new grass-roots social forms emerge. However, the contradictions of group social relations are gradually increasing: the continuously renewed urban space does not meet the new needs of residents. At the same time, with the accumulation of population, more and more residents are unable to enjoy equalized public service resources. This contradiction caused by the imbalance of the distribution mechanism of residents’ rights and interests can not be resolved and eliminated according to the existing "Fengqiao Experience".

4.2 The complication of livelihood issues leads to insufficient supply of experienceThe report of the 19thCPC National Congress pointed out that "we will strengthen the basic work at the grass-roots level in rural areas, improve the rural governance system with the combination of autonomy, the rule by law and morality, strengthen the construction of the community governance system, promote the focus of social governance to the grass-roots level, and give full play to the role of social organizations, realize the benign interaction between government governance, social regulation and resident autonomy"[9]. As can be seen from the contents of the above report, grass-roots social governance will be divided according to two parts: rural and urban communities. The rural governance system established by the rural community ensures the application of "autonomy, rule by law and rule by virtue". However, in view of the existence of urban residents’ mobility, large population and long incubation period of residents’ contradictions and disputes, the application of "autonomy, rule by law and rule by virtue" in urban communities is not sufficient. Accordingly, the livelihood problems and contradictions of the urban community can not rely entirely on the existing "Fengqiao Experience". For example, the linkage barriers between various organizations and departments in "autonomy" have not been completely broken through; in "rule by law", with the widespread popularization of the law, residents’ attention to the omission of legal provisions has gradually increased, and non-violent resistance has also come; "rule by virtue" is gradually missing, and violations of moral principles are common. All these lead to the fact that the "Fengqiao Experience" can not fully adapt to the existing grass-roots social conditions, and it will not be able to achieve the benign interaction of grass-roots social relations.

5 Realization path of carrying forward the "Fengqiao Experience" from the perspective of people’s livelihood

If the development and innovation of "Fengqiao Experience" is to be put into practice, the realization path in the field of people’s livelihood should be refined and implemented. The organic combination of the policy support at the national level and the experience summary at the level of the masses and Party members is an important factor for "Fengqiao Experience" to keep advanced and innovative with the times. Therefore, only by continuously strengthening the construction of grass-roots Party organizations and practicing the mass line, and integrating autonomy, rule by virtue and rule by law into the process of grass-roots social governance, can we better promote the realization of "Fengqiao Experience".

5.1 Strengthening the construction of grass-roots Party organizationsThe leadership of the Party is the greatest advantage of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics, the most essential feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and the fundamental guarantee for the "Fengqiao Experience" to maintain the correct direction. The "Fengqiao Experience" should always ensure the Party’s leading position in grass-roots social governance, constantly strengthen the authority of the CPC Central Committee, and give full play to the Party’s core role, which is the primary task to adhere to and develop the "Fengqiao Experience" in the new era and carry forward the spirit of Fengqiao. Therefore, to carry forward and implement the "Fengqiao Experience", we must earnestly strengthen the construction of grass-roots Party organizations and, on the basis of the leadership of the Party committee, rely on the strength of government responsibility, social collaborative help and active participation of citizens, and adopt the model of democratic consultation to form a new system of social governance. In the process of social governance, we must constantly improve the ability of grass-roots Party organizations to deal with practical problems and contradictions, and give full play to the exemplary leading role of Party members and the fighting bastion role of grass-roots Party organizations, to achieve full coverage of grass-roots Party organizations in the field of grass-roots social governance. At the same time, we must continue to strengthen the building of grass-roots Party organizations including organizational construction, ideological construction and style construction, intensify efforts to strengthen the education of Party members and the work style of Party organizations, effectively solve the problems of grass-roots social governance caused by personal ideological problems and style problems of grass-roots Party organizations and members, so that grass-roots Party organizations can effectively understand the "Fengqiao Experience", give full play to the real role of "Fengqiao Experience", and truly become the leadership core of strengthening grass-roots governance.

5.2 The strategic path of implementing the mass lineFengqiao Experience has developed into a new era from its inception to the present. Its applicability in dealing with complex contradictions and disputes is increasing, and the scope of public participation is constantly expanding. At the same time, this experience is not only applicable to rural grass-roots social governance, but also gradually applicable to urban grass-roots social governance. From the above changes, we can see that if we want to give better play to the role and function of "Fengqiao Experience", we must focus on the humanistic spirit and humanistic thought when taking the mass line, and put people first as a spiritual link to coordinate social governance at the grass-roots level. After entering the new era, the principal social contradiction in our country has changed, and the imbalance and inadequate contradiction between the needs of people’s livelihood and the supply of people’s livelihood has gradually surfaced. We must adhere to people first in the process of social governance at the grass-roots level, and continue to meet the needs and pursuit of all people on livelihood and other issues, so as to ease and resolve contradictions. From the concrete practice of "Fengqiao Experience" in resolving problems and contradictions at the social level, we can see that there are a large number of contradictions and disputes caused by ideological factors such as customs, morality and humanity in grass-roots society. Mediation can be used to deal with them effectively.

Therefore, the "Fengqiao Experience" adopting the mass line can start with the things and culture loved by the people, and provide reasonable institutional support and institutional guarantee for the people in the fields of educational services, social assistance, cultural and sports activities, ecological protection, employment distribution and so on. In addition, we can also start with transforming the thinking of the people, devote ourselves to improving the moral quality of the people, promote the formation of a social atmosphere of friendship and mutual assistance, and promote the construction of harmonious social relations.

5.3 Adhering to the basic way of combining autonomy, rule by virtue and rule by lawThe basic way of adhering to the combination of autonomy, rule by virtue and rule by law is the concrete embodiment of the "Fengqiao Experience" insisting on the organic unity of the leadership of the Party, the people being the masters of the country, and running the country according to law, and it is also an important means to constantly improve the grass-roots autonomy system and deliberative democracy. It is necessary to strengthen the building of autonomy and consolidate the foundation of governance. The national conditions of our country determine that we must fully consider the regionality and uniqueness when carrying out social governance at the grass-roots level, and adopt methods and means in line with local conditions to carry out grass-roots governance while taking the mass line. Autonomy emphasizes the continuous improvement of people’s ability of self-management and self-supervision, and effectively restricts their own behaviors and practices through self-cognition. For example, we can formulate village rules and regulations in rural areas, to restrict the behavior of villagers; we can promote the construction of family rules and community rules and regulations in cities, and curb the occurrence of bad behavior of community residents through rules and regulations in order to avoid irreconcilable contradictions and disputes. The grass-roots units of various localities should conscientiously understand the connotation and important role of the "Fengqiao Experience", sum up the application of local rules and regulations, and give full play to the important role of village rules and regulations in the new era. In order to strengthen the construction of the rule by virtue and rely on moral standards and social public order and good customs to restrain and educate grass-roots social residents, the best way is to vigorously carry forward the core values of socialism. It is necessary to improve the moral literacy of the whole people and strengthen the construction of social morality, professional ethics, family morality and personal morality. For example, it is necessary to intensify the publicity of good deeds and improve the reward mechanism, encourage the emergence of "city nice guy", and play the role of "leader", so that a large number of good personalities and good deeds can become role models for the masses. General Secretary Xi Jinping once pointed out: "No matter how many changes have taken place in the times and in the life pattern, we should pay attention to the construction of family style, family building, family education and family style[10]." It is necessary to establish a good family style and create a good family style atmosphere in the whole society to promote the sound development of grass-roots social governance. The construction of rule by law is also urgent. Law is a low-level morality and the institutional guarantee of autonomy and rule by virtue. When faced with the problems encountered in grass-roots social governance, we should use certain legal thinking and legal methods to deal with and solve them, so as to legalize the process and legalize the results. At the same time, we should strengthen the publicity of the rule by law and the cultivation of residents’ legal awareness, so that the rule by law can guide and standardize residents’ social life after being deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, thus reducing various contradictions and disputes in grass-roots social governance.

6 Conclusion

The innovation and expression of "Fengqiao Experience" in the new era should not be limited to clarifying its internal meaning or significance in the current specific social structure. It is only an interpretation of experience, and it is also necessary to find the internal adaptation mechanism of "Fengqiao Experience" in the new era. From the perspective of people’s livelihood, "Fengqiao Experience" starts with the theoretical origin and connotation of "Fengqiao Experience", and seeks the best way out for realizing the virtuous cycle of grass-roots social governance. In the new era, focusing on the historical change of major social contradictions in China, persisting in developing and innovating the "Fengqiao Experience", and deepening the transformation from rural-level Fengqiao to urban-level Fengqiao are the needs of the rapid development of modern economy and society, and the only way to promote grass-roots social governance and solve people’s livelihood problems.