In Chinese politics, since ancient times, there are two responsibilities for policy executors (whether central bureaucratic or local officials at all levels).Development and stagnation, integration and division.
The first responsibility is the usual responsibility, which is the responsibility of the central government or the superior government; the second responsibility is the usual responsibility that is commonly referred to.Good responsibility.Correspondingly, the two responsibilities also have two kinds of loyalty, the loyalty to the top and the loyalty to the bottom.
In any society, the importance of responsibility is self -evident.No matter what kind of politics, no matter what kind of era, there is an order between the superiors and lower levels. Without this order, it is not a politics.The order of superiors is particularly important for countries like China. Without this order, the order is not implemented, and the policy is not implemented, let alone the integration of the country.In contemporary China, this responsibility is often called the overall awareness or the overall concept.
It should be emphasized that the responsibility for the above responsibility is not the responsibility of any leader himself, but the responsibility of the interests represented by the superior leader.However, in practice, these two interests are sometimes not easy to distinguish. The responsibility is understood as the personal responsibility of the leader, and the loyalty is understood as the loyalty to the individual of the leader;The personal attachment between the superiors and the lower level is more important that it is more important to lose the pursuit and loyalty of the overall interests.
The following responsibilities are even more important, because simply speaking, the following responsibility is the basis for the above responsibility.China is theoretically a centralized country, which determines that both bureaucratic and local governments are regarded as the central government's dispatch agencies and the executive of the central policy.
However, this view is not so scientific, because the differences in China are huge, and local officials need to play subjective initiative to formulate local policies or revise policies from the central government according to local conditions.Although a country is not a simple addition in various places, if the local development and governance problems have problems, the country must have a problem.
It is not difficult to understand. As far as the country is concerned, the two responsibilities of the top and below are not only contradictory, but also have a high degree of consistency.As far as the central and superior are concerned, although it is focused on the overall interests of the country, the overall interests of the state need to be realized through local governments or bureaucratic bureaucratic institutions at all levels. For localities, local interests are equally important. As long as it is in the overall interests of the countryThe pursuit of local interests and parts in the structure, then the overall interests can naturally be realized.
As far as policy executors are concerned, if light is responsible, then local interests and local differences will inevitably be ignored, and development and management will inevitably occur.In a central centralized country like China, the possibility of light is far greater than the possibility of light.People can rationally assume that bureaucratic and local officials will inevitably sacrifice department and local interests to meet the interests of the central and superiors, because the promotion of bureaucrats and local officials depends on the central and superior officials, instead of the officials and people.
What's more important is that under such circumstances, there will be lazy politics in bureaucratic and local governments. They do not have to exert their subjective initiative. Doing something that will make the central and superior be happy.In this way, the phenomenon of political performance, fake information, and concealed bullying must be prevailing.
However, if the bureaucratic and local officials are responsible for the light, they cannot be responsible for the upper responsibility, and the local area may develop, but the overall interests and even the unity of the country will inevitably cause problems.In history, this situation has also emerged endlessly.Whenever the central government weakens, especially when the dynasty disintegrates, the place will inevitably produce feudal sections.
In the era of warlords in the 1930s, the economic development and governance of some places were quite good, but the overall interests of the country disappeared, not only the civil war continued, but also unable to deal with foreign enemies.
The relationship between centralization and decentralization is difficult to deal with
Therefore, for the central governors, an extremely important and extremely difficult to handle is the relationship between the centralized and decentralization. The consequences of the peace and the rights of the too, and the ideal is the relatively balanced balance of the two.As mentioned above, if it is too centralized, it will lead to the responsibility of the bureaucratic and subordinates only the responsibility of the opposite.
Bulletin and local officials will blindly obey the central and superiors. I don't know how to effectively govern the localities. Over time, a very bad situation will appear.
Historically, the Song Dynasty began to centralized power, which led local officials to do things without their own thinking. At the same time, local power was not enough. In the case of difficulties and crises, it relied on the central government and had no power to save self -rescue.Therefore, as soon as the Mongolians came in, there was no strength to protect themselves in various places, and the dynasty easily disintegrated, and there was no strength to restore vitality.Phase
In the end, the Tang Dynasty was more decentralized, local forces were strong, and local officials' responsibilities were relatively large.Although there is also a crisis of Anshi Rebellion, it can still be recovered quickly in various places.
On the other hand, if the local power is too divided, the local place will be large, and the local interests of bureaucrats and local officials will be strengthened, and the awareness of the overall situation will be lost.Integration, even leading the disintegration of the country.
The situations that have been discussed here in history are not far from people.After the reform and opening up in 1978, especially in the 1980s, the most discussing the dilemma of centralized and decentralized power, that is, the vicious circle of vicious cycle of viciousness in the dilemma of centralization and decentralization, that is, as soon as it was closed, let go, was chaotic, and chaos.This vicious circle is not only manifested in the central and local relations, but also in other aspects, including the relationship between the government and the market, the country and society.
However, after the reform (such as the tax segmentation system) with the goal of centralization in the 1990s, the state of excessive decentralization in the 1980s has indeed solved some problems. Therefore, people seem to discuss this vicious cycle frequently.However, this is not to say that these phenomena have disappeared.In fact, this vicious circle still exists, but it has only changed the form and expressed in other ways.
What happened around the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China was obviously a manifestation of this cycle.For many years before the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, there were many problems with overlapping rights, which even led to a large political crisis.At the top, due to the incompleteness of the democratic mechanism within the party, the degree of institutionalization is too low, the decentralization within the party has led to the rise of oligopoly politics in political science, which is what people usually call the party's group.
Zhou Yongkang, Ling Ling and the Army's Xu Caihou, Guo Boxiong, etc. can be said to be a typical political oligopoly.
The rise of oligopicism harms the overall interests of the party and threatens the survival and development of the ruling party.Local manifestations are localism.Mutual competition between localities is inevitable. Competitions have promoted local officials to effectively use the comparative advantages of the local area and exert subjective initiative to develop places through reform.However, most of the time, local competition is only a competition between policies.
However, the competition before the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China has greatly surpassed the simple policy field, and the question of what roads are involved.This happened at the time in Chongqing.Furthermore, because of too much decentralization, the responsibility of the party has become a big problem, which has caused such a situation: collective leadership has become unmanned leadership, and collective responsibility becomes unprepared.
In this way, there is a state of out of control in all aspects of the party, especially in terms of corruption. After the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, there are many large and small officials in the anti -corruption movement. It has its background.
It is precisely because of the various problems caused by the excessive decentralization before the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and the aggregate trend has occurred since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.Undoubtedly, centralized power is not the personal choice of leaders, but is inevitable.Regardless of who is in politics, as long as the overall national interests and the overall interests of the ruling party will solve these problems through centralization.Of course, it is another matter if it can be concentrated.
In history, there have been major problems in decentralization, but examples of the central government have no ability to concentrate.
However, the centralized power also arises its own problems, mainly manifested in several aspects.First, collective power has become a general trend. The central government is a central government. Bulletin and governments at all levels have also focused on governance, and centralized competition in some places has led to excessive centralization in some fields.This integrated trend needs to be corrected after problems with problems and encountering rebounds.
But it is clear that it takes a long time from the problem to the rebound to the correction, and there will be many problems during this period.
Second, some new establishments intended to prevent corruption (mainly the supervision system) established, but because many details are not in place, it is also because the operation of the new system requires a trial and error.During the beginning, some executors could not understand the spirit of the new system and their execution was too mechanically, which led to excessive and unnecessary pressure on the new system to bureaucrats and local officials.
Third, in the general trend of power, bureaucrats and local officials have a sense of fear of themselves, and their self -abandoning power should not be exercised.This causes the previous discussion that only the upper responsibility, the lack of positive dynamics.
Today, China's bureaucrats and local officials have a polarization phenomenon.For some officials, it is the most difficult time to do things now. Because of its centralized power, they feel that there is no power to do things on the one hand. On the other hand, once something is necessary to do, especially the difficult reform, then they will face it. Then they will face it.Stress in all aspects.
But for some officials, it is also the best time to mix now, that is, inaction, mediocre and mediocre, and get off work on time on time.Other officials sing praise and say that some superior leaders like to listen, which is much easier than advancing real reforms.
Just as the phenomenon of decentralization status, these phenomena that appear in the centralized state are also understandable.However, it is clear that this phenomenon does not meet the overall interests of the country, nor does it meet local and local interests.From historical experience, if this phenomenon continues for a long time, it will cause more problems to accumulate and even lead to a big crisis.
This situation is the product of the imbalance between the two responsibilities that the bureaucracy and the officials that the officials and officials must bear above, and the two kinds of responsibilities are behind the imbalances of centralized and decentralization.Therefore, to achieve a balance between two responsibilities, we must first find a new equilibrium point between concentration and decentralization.In historical perspective, appropriate centralization must be performed after decentralization, and appropriate decentralization must be performed after collective rights. This is normal, that is, the so -called overkill.
For the central government and superiors, we must perform the two responsibilities creation environment for central bureaucrats and local officials.Although the central government must adjust the decentralization and centralized power according to the changes in the actual situation, the boundary of decentralization and centralization requires a relatively stable boundary. Without the border, the policy executor will be unsatisfactory.Furthermore, both the two borders and the performance of these two responsibilities must be introduced to the rule of law. The rule of law is used to regulate the central and local relations, and the rule of law is used to ensure the in place and implementation of these two responsibilities.
(The author is the director of the East Asia Research Institute of the National University of Singapore, and the article only represents personal opinions)
