To explore the relationship between government and society, or to analyze the role of government in social operation, an unavoidable question is the basis of government's existence in society, that is, why does government need to exist? Since ancient times, thinkers have put forward a series of assumptions about the state and its government according to the needs of their political opinions.
Aristotle, an ancient Greek thinker, represented a naturalistic tendency. Aristotle thinks that man is a natural political animal, so he seems to have decided to live a political life from the beginning. Therefore, the emergence and existence of the government is a natural result, out of the nature that human beings tend to live a social and political life and the need to maintain order, control society and pursue good deeds. Moreover, he said: "It is not only necessary, but also beneficial to have the distinction between ruling and being ruled in the world; Some people are destined to be ruled when they are born, and some people are destined to be rulers. " He also said: "It is obvious that some people in the world are born free and some people are born slaves. For the latter, slaves are both beneficial and legitimate. " (2) that is to say, people's noble and humble position in the political society is doomed, and once people live in a certain position, they cannot change. Therefore, as a ruler, we should consider how to govern for the purpose of goodness, and as a ruled, obedience is bound to be its highest virtue. This is the case, so just as the ultimate goal of human existence is goodness, the ultimate goal of government existence is its good cause.
In slave society and feudal society, the theological view that the government is superior to society and human beings in a supernatural way has been widely spread. The main representatives are Augustine, a Christian theologian in the ancient Roman Empire, and Thomas Aquinas, an Italian theologian in the13rd century. They believe that God created the world, the country and the government. Kings and emperors are the sons of God and the representatives of God on the earth. The power of the state and the power of the monarch are endowed by God, so they are sacred and inviolable. In ancient China, there was also a saying that "the sovereign power was given by God". In ancient China society, people believed in "Heaven" and thought that the emergence and existence of the government originated from "Destiny", so the emperor was the son of heaven, and all the people in the world were destined to accept the rule of the son of heaven. Disobeying the emperor's rule is an infringement of "destiny". This view, which is called "divine right of monarchy", is undoubtedly an obstacle for people to clearly understand the foundation of government existence and further understand its role from a scientific and secular perspective. Of course, in today's world, except for a few countries with strong religious traditions, this theological and political view has no influence.
In the early days of the bourgeois revolution, some thinkers began to look at the world with a rational eye. Regarding the existence of state and government, the view of social contract theory is the most representative and influential.
Hobbes, a British thinker, pointed out that conflicts of interest are bound to occur in social life because of human selfish nature. "Without a powerful * * * to impress everyone, people are in a so-called state of war. This kind of war is a war between everyone and everyone. The nature of war lies not in the actual fighting, but in the known fighting intention during the whole period without peace guarantee. " (1) In order to suppress this state of war, society needs a great power beyond society, and the country is the embodiment of this power. The reason why the state has this power is because the state is produced by a contract concluded by members of society. In the process of concluding the contract, people gave up all their original power and handed it over to the rulers of the country and their governments. In the view of social contract theorists, the emergence and existence of state and government is the need for people to prevent conflicts and wars and help people live a stable life. The fundamental purpose of the emergence or existence of the state and the government is precisely to make social members live in a stable order and ensure the personal and property safety of social members. Obviously, the viewpoint of bourgeois social contract theory, which is based on imaginative reasoning, makes a logical inference to the emergence of the state and the government. However, its lack of factual evidence and its eagerness to draw conclusions show that its fundamental purpose is to clarify the issues of bourgeois political principles such as contract equality and political freedom and serve bourgeois politics, rather than really discussing the emergence of the country and the government itself.
From the height of historical materialism, Marxism discusses the basis and reasons for the existence of the state and the government. According to Marxism, before the state and government came into being, human beings had a primitive society without them for a long time. During this period, human beings relied on blood relationship as a link to work and live in clan organizations. Due to the development of social productive forces, there have been three substantive divisions of labor in society, resulting in surplus products, which have divided society into opposing classes. After the emergence of class, social contradictions and disputes are inevitable. In order to prevent this opposing class from destroying itself and society in unnecessary contradictions and disputes, it needs a power to reconcile contradictions and ease conflicts. The country was born because of this need. Starting from the achievement of the historian Morgan's masterpiece "Ancient Society", Engels discussed in detail the process of the emergence of the state as a social public power, which also provided a scientific basis for us to understand the basis and reasons for the existence of the government. It should be noted that Engels repeatedly pointed out that public power is superior to society when talking about the state-owned situation. Engels said that "the state is based on a special public power separated from all fixed members", "the essential feature of the state is the public power separated from the people", and the state is "a force that is born in society but pretends to be above society and is increasingly divorced from society". In other words, the government, as the main body in charge of social public power, really needs to maintain its nature and characteristics of "overriding society". If it does not participate in society in this role, it will not be able to perform its function of resolving contradictions and easing conflicts. " In essence, these expositions of Engels provide a theoretical basis for analyzing the relationship between government and society.
2. Mill's exposition on the relationship between government and citizens
Solving the relationship between government and citizens is the core to straighten out the role of government and deal with the relationship between government and society. As early as the middle of19th century, British thinker John Mill paid great attention to this issue. When discussing this issue, Mill also took China as an example to analyze the relationship between government and citizens. Muller pointed out that China formed a set of good customs in the early days of mankind, which enabled people to achieve some achievements that even the most enlightened Europeans must regard as saints and wise men under certain restrictions. Moreover, they have an excellent social mechanism to impress their best wisdom on every soul in the group as much as possible, ensuring that all the smartest people will get honor and powerful positions. But China gradually fell behind in the international community at that time. Mill believes that the fundamental reason is that this nation has not correctly handled the relationship between the government and citizens, especially the power limit that the government can impose on the people, and has not established a mechanism to give full play to the wisdom and creativity of all social individuals.
Mill closely linked the social progress with the social handling of the relationship between the government and individuals. Because in his view, social progress is related to the personality and initiative of every member of society, and how a government empowers citizens directly affects their personality and initiative. Therefore, as a government, it is the basic premise to give full play to the enthusiasm and initiative of citizens to clearly define the power boundary between it and citizens and correct its own behavior role. In this regard, Mill put forward three principles:
First, if individuals do things better than the government, then in this case, the government should step back and let individuals do it themselves. Generally speaking, the person who is most suitable to run an enterprise or decide how to run it and who will run it is the person who has a great interest in the enterprise. Therefore, Mill does not advocate government intervention in ordinary social and economic activities.
Second, there are many things, although some people may not be as good as government officials, but they are still suitable for individuals rather than the government. Because it can give full play to individual enthusiasm and initiative. At the same time, according to the current concept, reducing government affairs means reducing government agencies and their officials, thus reducing government management costs. For ordinary people, it is to reduce the tax burden.
Third, in any case, the government should try to minimize intervention. Because unnecessarily increasing the power of the government will bring unnecessary harm. The expansion of government power and too many things arranged by the government will inevitably lead to the aggressive public relying more and more on the government; They expect the government to do everything for themselves, and there is no government order that they do nothing. Therefore, people think that it is the responsibility of the government to do a good job; If something goes wrong, people will naturally blame the government for the disaster, and once this disaster is beyond their capacity, they may have a tendency to distrust or even be indifferent to the government.
Muller's thoughts and propositions provide us with useful reference for dealing with the relationship between government and society, government and citizens and determining the role of government under the market economy system.
3. Fields and ways of government behavior under market economy conditions
As the main body in charge of social public power, the government's positive actions are mandatory from top to bottom, and the breadth and depth of its actions are unmatched by any other social group. Therefore, the results of government actions are often twofold: on the one hand, human beings have achieved many goals that cannot be achieved by individuals, families and village communities with the help of the public power of the government, so the existence of the government is usually considered as a necessary condition for human beings to live a kind and happy life. On the other hand, government power often plays a negative role in human social activities, especially in the market economy. Therefore, in the process of analyzing the relationship between government and society, the government's actions and omissions are another important analytical perspective.
In Mill's analysis of the relationship between government and citizens, the field of government inaction has actually been put forward. The field of government inaction is the first to push the private sector. The private sector should be operated independently by all parties concerned, and the government does not need more intervention. Even if you want to do something, it can only be general guidance, not direct intervention. Muller pointed out: "As long as the individual's behavior does not involve the interests of anyone except himself, the individual does not have to be responsible for society. If others feel it is necessary for their own interests, they can give him advice, advice, persuasion and even avoid it. These are the only appropriate steps when society wants to express anxiety or criticism of his behavior. " From the perspective of private interests, it is usually better for private affairs to be decided by themselves than by others, society and the government. Because for a person's happiness, he is the most concerned. From the perspective of the overall interests of society, private affairs are decided by themselves, which is also conducive to human happiness and social progress. Because, first of all, human beings are made up of individuals. Without the free development of different personalities, there can be no prosperity and progress of mankind. The development of personality and its ability can only grow rapidly if it is used freely. Therefore, there are many things that I may not do as well as government officials, but it is appropriate for me to do it personally, because it can strengthen people's initiative, exercise people's judgment ability and make people acquire relevant knowledge. Second, even when human beings are not perfect, the existence of different opinions is very useful. "Similarly, in life, we can say that there should be many different experiments in life; As long as there is no harm to others, it is necessary to give all kinds of personality free development space; The value of different lifestyles should be proved by practice, as long as someone thinks it is suitable to try. If the code of conduct is not based on one's own personality, but on the traditions or customs of others, then one of the main factors of human happiness is missing. These expositions of Mill fully reveal the inherent social value of individual autonomy.
It has become the basic principle of human society that the private sphere should be autonomous by the parties. In the process of reform and opening up, China has gradually moved towards standardization on this issue. It can be said that the private sphere should be the autonomy of the parties, which also has the proper attributes of Socialism with Chinese characteristics law, because it means that the party and the government trust and rely on the masses; It means that the broad masses of the people are the real masters of the country, and they can cultivate and improve their abilities by taking care of their own affairs, so as to effectively participate in the management of public affairs. Adhering to the principle of party autonomy in the private sphere is also an important step towards democratic politics.
From the behavioral point of view, under the market economy system, the government, as the main body of public power, mainly performs social public management functions. Especially in modern society, because people's public life has become increasingly extensive, there are so many public affairs to be managed. This requires giving full play to the specific functions of the government to perform social public management. For example, in an urbanized society, social affairs have occupied an important aspect of urban social life. From residents' community life to road planning and construction, from urban environmental sanitation to community planning and layout, from children's schooling education to continuing training of employees, from urban commercial distribution to personal property security prevention. In fact, these problems cannot be solved by market exchange rules. In modern society, the responsibility of the government in public management is increasing.
From the way of action, the government, as the main body in charge of social public power, is above social and economic activities and does not intervene in economic activities as the main body of social and economic activities. Under the condition of market economy, the allocation of social resources is mainly carried out through the market and in accordance with the rules of market exchange, rather than directly promoted by the administrative power of the government. Strengthening the construction of legal system and giving full play to the role of social intermediary organizations are important ways to implement government functions. Strengthen the construction of the legal system, that is, establish a legislative and judicial system that is compatible with the market economy, and use legal means and methods to play its positive role in public power; Attach importance to justice, because "if the law can't be enforced, it means there is no law" ③, "as long as the law has no power, all legal things have no power" ④; Guide the public to use the legal system to safeguard their legitimate rights and interests, rather than resorting to other illegal or improper means. Social organizations or intermediaries are between individuals and the state, have the function of expressing opinions and interests, and can play a coordinating role in economic life. Through social intermediary organizations, society can manage itself, thus achieving the purpose of maintaining social order. In short, when maintaining social order, the government must pay attention to never interfering with society by direct administrative means, but by means of law, public opinion and publicity. Otherwise, the pervasive infiltration and intervention in society will not only fail to achieve the expected goal of managing society, but also easily infringe on the social private sphere where the government does not act under the market economy, thus suppressing citizens' autonomy and creative spirit.
With the development of market economy, the concept of "governance" in government behavior has been widely recognized. "Governance" is an institutional concept to balance and redistribute rights and interests between the government and the market. It pursues diversified, decentralized, networked and diversified management. Based on social values such as equality and pluralism, it seeks the combination of planning and market, centralization and decentralization, and formal and informal organizations. It is a "new concept of social governance". The theory of "governance" holds that in today's society, the government does not need to monopolize all legal powers. In addition to the government, social non-governmental organizations can also play an active regulatory role in social and economic management, and can maximize the mobilization and utilization of resources through dialogue, coordination and cooperation among various groups. Governance is a comprehensive social management method, which can effectively overcome the disadvantages of market exchange and top-down regulation by the government.
Three. The Development and Transformation of the Relationship between Government and Society in China
Due to the particularity of social and historical development in China, there has been a long-term tendency to attach importance to the government and despise individuals in dealing with the relationship between the government and society. In the long feudal society, influenced by the idea of "divine right of monarch", governments at all levels, as executors of sovereign power, have absolute social authority. Accordingly, officials have become the parents of the people. "Being an official is not for the people, it is better to go home and sell sweet potatoes." "Being the master of the people" is the most common social requirement for officials. The people are completely in a state of obedience and obedience, and the official standard has replaced the social standard. In modern times, influenced by the colonial rule of western capitalist system, Chinese national capitalism has not really developed fully, but has become a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. From then on, under the leadership of China's * * * Production Party, the people of the whole country overthrew the three mountains of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucratic capitalism, and China's social form jumped from a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society to a socialist society in which the people were masters of their own affairs.
Under certain historical conditions, the planned economic system that we have implemented for a long time after liberation. Under the planned economy system, China government has shown the image of "all-round government". In the social, economic, political and cultural fields, at all levels, from macro to micro, from policy formulation to implementation and concrete implementation, from all aspects of human, financial and material management, it is carried out comprehensively and meticulously through administrative organizations at all levels and organizations of various enterprises and institutions with administrative levels and functions. The highly centralized government makes it the largest employer in the whole society, and political and administrative power monopolizes and controls almost all social resources. The government is used to solving economic and social problems by administrative means, and economic and social problems are often easily transformed into political problems, so that people are used to politicizing social life and solving all social problems by administrative means. This has caused two effects: First, personally, whenever there is any dispute or contradiction, people are used to looking for organizations and superior leading cadres instead of resorting to the law, and the government has to solve it, which will easily lead to many trivial and complicated affairs, leading to the continuous expansion of government institutions; On the other hand, because the government directly participates in economic activities, it not only acts as an economic arbitrator but also participates in market competition in person, which breeds various hotbeds of corruption.
With the comprehensive promotion and in-depth development of the system reform, the separation of government from enterprise and the transformation from "unit person" to "social person" and "community person", the relationship between government and society, government and individual is facing an unprecedented comprehensive transformation. Obviously, in this relationship transformation, the decision-making behavior of the government is dominant, so we will pay more attention to the transformation of the government.
1. The role change of the government in dealing with social relations: from management to service.
In contemporary society, the role and position of the government are quietly changing. Social organizations and citizens are becoming the service objects with subject qualification and independent behavior ability, and become the center of government administration. This makes administrative management gradually change from top-down mandatory management to service management. In this case, the management process of the government is regarded as a service process.
2. The transformation of the government's function in dealing with social relations: from omnipotence to specialization.
In the process of reform, the role orientation of the government began to change. In the spring tide of market economy, there are more and more social disputes and contradictions, which bring unprecedented pressure to government work. On the other hand, however, the government's overwork sometimes does not win social recognition, but attracts various criticisms. In this regard, the government must comprehensively reflect on its role. This reflection is manifested in two aspects: one is the re-understanding of the content of government management, and the other is the development of government administration specialization. The government is increasingly aware that meeting all the needs of society cannot be simply attributed to the content of government management. The content of government management can only be the part that the society needs and the government can meet. In addition, it should be pointed out that even the social needs that the government can meet may not necessarily become the content of government management. Because the government needs investment to realize its work content, and this investment is a social burden. If a certain social demand can be met more economically and effectively through the general social organization and its operating mechanism, human reason will choose the general social organization and its operating mechanism instead of the government. This not only conforms to the principle of economic benefit, but also conforms to the principle of political democracy. Therefore, only those social needs that can only be met through compulsory power have sufficient reasons to become the content of government management.
The repositioning of management content has promoted the specialization and professionalization of the government, and "doing something and not doing something" has increasingly become the criterion for the transformation of government functions at all levels. With the development of socialized mass production and market mechanism, the government is objectively required to manage the country and society according to the inherent laws of economic and social development. The government's functions of macro-control of economy, comprehensive management of society and provision of various services for society are increasingly prominent, and the professional requirements of government official duties are also constantly improving.
3. From the integration of political society to the separation of political society.
That is, the government gradually withdraws from social, economic, cultural and other folk activities. In this process, the government's reform is mainly reflected in the decentralization of examination and approval authority. Examination and approval is the basic means and way for the government to manage social economy under the planned economy system. Under the system of integration of politics and society, this way of allocating social resources leads to repeated construction, waste of resources and low efficiency. To reform the authority of government examination and approval is to define the scope of government examination and approval in detail: it is related to the strategic objectives and key points of social stability, national economy and people's livelihood and sustainable development, and the project examination and approval should be strict and strict; If it belongs to the autonomy of enterprises, belongs to the scope of market behavior or should be handled by intermediary organizations, it will be decentralized. What should be decided by the market should be carried out through fair competition such as bidding, auction and lottery. These reform measures have effectively promoted the self-development of society, improved the efficiency and level of government management, and made the relationship between government and society gradually move from the integration of politics and society to the separation of politics and society.