Why did our party put forward the strategic task of building a harmonious socialist society at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 16th CPC Central Committee? We must comprehensively grasp this problem from two aspects. First of all, a harmonious society is our ideal goal. The Fourth Plenary Session of the 16th CPC Central Committee listed social harmony with material civilization, spiritual civilization and political civilization as the goal of China's socialist modernization, which made China's socialist modernization develop from the trinity goal of prosperity, democracy and civilization to the quaternity goal of prosperity, democracy, civilization and harmony. Moreover, we should also see that in the past, due to the long-term influence of class struggle, opposition and struggle were emphasized and unity and harmony were ignored; Due to the long-term influence of highly centralized planned economy, the functions and functions of social organizations are ignored; Because our society was born out of semi-feudal and semi-colonial society, it is currently in the transition period from traditional society to modern society, and the level of social development is relatively low, so our social construction is relatively backward, which is very uncoordinated with socialist economic, political and cultural construction. It is very necessary to regard social harmony as an important goal of modernization and social construction as an important task of modernization.
Building a harmonious socialist society is a part of the general goal and task of China's modernization, and it is also an overall strategic issue that runs through the whole process of socialist modernization. We should also see that economic construction, political construction, cultural construction and social construction are not only a phased construction task, but also a continuous long-term construction task. Even if socialist modernization is realized, social construction, like economic construction, political construction and cultural construction, is still an important task of Socialism with Chinese characteristics's construction, and achieving social harmony is still our goal. Moreover, according to Marxist theory, the more socialism develops, the more people's autonomy and freedom will be enhanced, the functions of the state will be transferred to society more and more, and social construction will become more important. In the capitalist society, the state will die out completely, and the whole society will be a union of free people. Everyone's free development is the condition for others' free development, thus achieving the most perfect ideal state of human social harmony.
When understanding the importance and necessity of building a harmonious socialist society, it is not enough to grasp it only from the perspective of goals. Our party now raises this issue because of its realistic reasons and thinking. This is mainly due to three reasons: First, since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, although China's economy has developed for more than 20 years, it has basically taken an extensive development mode. At present, the quality and efficiency of development are prominent, the imbalance of development is prominent, and the problems of resources and environment are prominent. If these contradictions and problems are not solved, it will seriously restrict the sustainable development of China in the future and affect China's overall construction of a well-off society and even the whole socialist modernization. Second, in the first two decades of development, China devoted itself to opening up and invigorating, broke the rigid system and egalitarianism, and implemented a big policy of allowing some regions and some people to get rich first. Now, while continuing to adhere to this great policy, we should, in accordance with Deng Xiaoping's thought of "two overall situations", bring the rich first, promote the development of backward areas, increase the income of the people who are rich later, and finally put the prosperity of the whole people on the agenda and pay more attention to social equity. Third, China's modernization has entered a critical period. According to international experience, the level of economic development reaches per capita 1000-3000 USD, which is both a "golden period of development" and a "period of frequent social conflicts". If contradictions are handled properly, it is possible to achieve gold development. If contradictions lead to social unrest, development will stagnate or even retrogress. Therefore, achieving social harmony is a crucial strategic issue for us to effectively grasp the current rare period of strategic opportunities and build a well-off society in an all-round way.
Second, we should focus on solving the contradictions and problems we face.
At present, we propose to build a harmonious society because there are a lot of contradictions that affect social harmony in our society. Therefore, it is the most direct and effective way and method to know and understand these contradictions and problems and try to solve them. If we don't understand and analyze these contradictions and problems, the pursuit of social harmony may turn into obliterating contradictions and covering up problems. If contradictions are not correctly analyzed and handled, they will intensify contradictions and problems and aggravate social disharmony. Socialist countries have had personal experience and lessons on this issue. The Soviet Union is the first socialist country in the world. Stalin believed that the productive forces and relations of production, the economic base and the superstructure in socialist society are completely compatible, and there is no social contradiction in the whole society. The motive force of social development is the unity of human spirit and morality. He placed great emphasis on social unity, unity and unanimity, but this unity was based on obliterating contradictions and covering up problems. This is a superficial and formal unity with no vitality. As a result, many contradictions and problems have been covered up for a long time, and once they break out, they will cause huge social shocks. After Stalin's death, the Polish-Hungarian incident in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and the controversy and division in the whole international movement fully illustrated this problem.
After China entered the socialist society, Comrade Mao Zedong was keenly aware of this problem and pointed out that there were still various social contradictions in the socialist society. However, since the large-scale mass class struggle has basically ended, the contradiction between the enemy and ourselves has relegated to a secondary position, and the contradictions among the people have become prominent, which has become an issue that must be highly valued. He stressed that the party and the government should correctly handle contradictions among the people, coordinate all aspects of relations, and mobilize all positive factors to build socialism. This solves the problem of why socialist society still needs to pay attention to social contradictions and social harmony from the basic theory. But not long after that, our country appeared another deviation on this issue, which was different from that of the Soviet Union. That is, one-sided emphasis on social contradictions and struggles, repeated "class struggles" and political movements, until the Cultural Revolution, lasted for ten years. Not only is the relationship between economy and politics seriously unbalanced in social development, but it also deviates from taking economic construction as the center. The whole society has been in a state of opposition and turmoil for a long time, and social harmony has been seriously destroyed, resulting in very serious consequences.
Today, we propose to build a harmonious socialist society. It is by summing up these historical experiences and lessons that all our work is based on correctly understanding and solving various contradictions and problems facing the current society. On this issue, we must first make it clear that the main contradiction in our society is still the contradiction between the people's growing material and spiritual needs and backward social production. To build a harmonious society, we should also adhere to economic construction as the center and take development as the top priority in governing and rejuvenating the country. We must establish the idea of promoting social harmony through development and promoting development through social harmony, and we must never separate and oppose them. Around this main contradiction, building a harmonious society needs to solve many other social contradictions and problems, such as resource waste and environmental pollution in economic development, imbalance between urban and rural areas and regions, excessive income distribution gap among residents and illegal income, and corruption of party and government cadres. Only by making up your mind to solve these major contradictions and problems that affect social harmony and satisfy the broad masses of the people can we achieve real social harmony.
Third, we must grasp the fundamental principle of regulating interest relations.
Interest relationship is the basis of all human social relations, and everything people strive for is ultimately related to their interests. Therefore, grasping the interest relationship in the process of building a harmonious society will grasp the root of the problem, and handling and coordinating the interest relationship will grasp the focus of the work. The interest issue is a global strategic issue, involving all members of society and all aspects of social life. Countries, localities, departments, units, organizations and individuals all have their own interests. It can be said that the issue of interests is ever-present and ubiquitous, and the interest relationship is complicated and everyone cares. Especially under the condition of market economy, market subjects are pursuing the maximization of their own interests, the concept of interests is strengthened unprecedentedly, and the interest relationship is diversified unprecedentedly. Interest tendency has become the most powerful lever to accelerate social development, and adjusting interest relationship has also become the primary problem to establish social harmony.
* * * Common interests are the basis for social forces to achieve unity and a powerful weapon to strengthen unity and resolve contradictions. To build a harmonious society, we must strengthen people's recognition of common interests, highlight common aspects and coordinate contradictory aspects. It is necessary to unite the people of all ethnic groups and people from all walks of life in the country with the same interests as the link. To the people of the whole country, we should strengthen the publicity of the common interests of the Chinese nation and the people of China, and educate them in patriotism, national tradition and national spirit. Every region, department, industry, community, enterprise, unit and village has its own interests. Through effective ideological propaganda, people should realize their own interests and work together to build a harmonious social relationship. At the same time, we should also see that different regions, departments, industries, communities, enterprises, units and villages also have their own internal conflicts of interest. Through ideological propaganda work, people should consciously seek common ground while reserving differences, make mutual understanding and accommodation, live in harmony, unite and cooperate, and work together to achieve social harmony. According to historical experience, we should pay special attention to the relationship between * * * and special interests when dealing with interest relations. Before the Cultural Revolution, when we emphasized the national and collective interests, we often ignored or even denied the local and individual interests, which seriously affected the enthusiasm of departments and individuals. After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, we corrected this tendency, paid attention to developing and safeguarding the interests of regions, departments and individuals, and effectively mobilized people's enthusiasm. However, in this process, there has been a phenomenon that the interests of individuals and departments have harmed the interests of society and the state. In this case, it is even more necessary to strengthen the maintenance of the common interests of the state and society, and at the same time pay attention to protecting the special interests of units and individuals, so as to build a solid new pattern of interest relations for building a harmonious society.
Building a harmonious society is by no means denying contradictions, let alone covering up or obliterating contradictions, but studying and solving contradictions on the basis of admitting contradictions, and achieving the goal of unity, unity and harmony by correctly handling social interests and down-to-earth work. In this sense, it can be said that building a harmonious society is a long-term goal. To achieve this goal, we must go through the process of dealing with and solving social contradictions. Even if we realize the harmonious society we want, this kind of social harmony is still relative, and it only controls social contradictions and conflicts within a certain range. Moreover, we should also see that the society is constantly developing and changing, and new contradictions will appear when the old contradictions are solved, which requires us to constantly improve our ability to analyze and deal with social contradictions. Therefore, the most important and difficult task in building a harmonious society is to correctly understand and handle all kinds of social contradictions, especially acute and complicated social contradictions, and gradually form a social crisis early warning mechanism that can accurately reflect social conditions and public opinion, and correctly handle all kinds of social contradictions.
The five overall plans put forward by Scientific Outlook on Development are the theoretical weapons and guiding ideology for us to build a harmonious socialist society. Although these five overall plans are about overall development, they are also applicable to overall interests. While promoting social development, we must coordinate social interests and build a harmonious society. Therefore, when building a harmonious society, we should put the overall interests in a very important position. There are some very important issues to study and pay attention to. For example, how to coordinate the interests of the masses between urban and rural areas, between regions and between departments; How to give consideration to the interests of the first rich group and the disadvantaged group; How to solve the problem of excessive income gap; How can the people of the whole country enjoy the fruits of reform and development? How to help the rich first, get rich first and then get rich, and so on. This is from a national perspective. Every region, every department and every unit has a lot of interest problems that need to be solved as a whole. It is necessary to put forward problems from reality and seriously study how to make overall plans. In short, we should take the overall interests as a powerful weapon to build a harmonious society and vigorously advocate and use them.
People's actions are driven by interests, so interests have a fundamental guiding role in people's actions. We should be good at guiding people's thoughts and behaviors with the baton of interests and building a harmonious social relationship. For example, formulate relevant policies and laws to benefit those who are willing to help others and damage the interests of those who harm others and benefit themselves; Benefit those who maintain social stability and unity, and harm the interests of those who create unrest; Benefit diligent and honest people and harm the interests of those who endanger society; It is beneficial to those who protect the ecological environment and harmful to those who destroy it; Benefit those who abide by the law and punish those who violate the law and discipline; And so on. In our real life, there are a lot of interest-oriented examples and practical experience in building a harmonious social relationship, which need us to sum up and publicize seriously in order to give full play to its demonstration effect and educational role for the broad masses of cadres and people.
Fourth, the key is to improve the ability of the party and the government to build a harmonious society.
The party and the government are the leading forces and political organs in our country, and play a leading role in building a harmonious socialist society. Constantly improving the ability of the party and the government to build a harmonious society is the key issue that we should pay attention to first. The Fourth Plenary Session of the 16th CPC Central Committee made an important decision on this issue, and the following are several issues that need to be emphasized.
First, improve the ability to lead development. We are building a harmonious society in the process of socialist modernization, and the concept and mode of development have a decisive influence on the construction of a harmonious society. Seeing things but ignoring human development, simple economic development and extensive development will lead to disharmony between economic development and human development, disharmony between economic construction and political, cultural and social construction, and disharmony between man and nature. People-oriented, comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development will fundamentally promote economic and social development, the harmony of social relations and the harmony between man and nature. Scientific Outlook on Development, put forward by the CPC Central Committee on the basis of summing up the development experience and lessons at home and abroad, provides the guidance of world outlook and methodology on how to solve this problem. We should take Scientific Outlook on Development as the overall leader of economic and social development and lay a solid foundation for building a harmonious socialist society.
Second, we should improve our ability to coordinate social relations. With the development of modernization and the establishment of market economy, great changes have taken place in China's social situation, with more complex social structure, more diversified interests and more diverse people's ideas, which put forward higher requirements for the ability of the party and the government to coordinate social relations. We can't handle social relations with class struggle as the key link as before the Cultural Revolution, and we can't handle social relations mainly by administrative orders as in the planned economy period. We should explore new ways and methods, which is harmonious thinking and methods. Harmony has its specific connotation, which requires overall consideration of the interests of all parties, rather than one-sided emphasis on the interests of one or several parties and neglect or even harm the interests of other parties; It requires mobilizing the enthusiasm of all parties and fighting for the interests of the same nation, rather than suppressing and cracking down on the enthusiasm of some parties; It requires all parties to support each other, promote each other, communicate with each other and get along well, instead of being in a state of opposition and hostility; It requires harmony without difference, respects the values and needs of all parties and is very inclusive. The 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China summarized this relationship as the relationship of each according to his ability, each in his proper place and living in harmony. According to this new way of thinking, we should constantly improve our ability to deal with social relations and establish a harmonious social relationship and social environment.
Third, improve the ability to resolve social contradictions and deal with emergencies. In order to establish a harmonious social relationship and social environment, we must strive to resolve various contradictions that affect social harmony. Interest is the foundation of all kinds of social relations. Only when the interest relationship is reasonable, everyone is in his place and comfortable, will there be harmonious social relations. Therefore, to suppress and resolve social contradictions, we must first improve the ability of the party and the government to coordinate social interests. While persisting in realizing and developing the interests of the masses, we should also coordinate the interests of the masses. In accordance with the requirements of the interests of the masses, solve the most realistic, most concerned and most direct interests of the masses. In particular, we should pay attention to the broad masses of peasants and urban vulnerable groups, earnestly safeguard their rights and interests, strive to improve their living standards, and truly let the people of the whole country enjoy the fruits of reform and development. Secondly, establish and improve relevant systems and mechanisms. Improve China's distribution system and social security system, while maintaining the vitality of social development, pay more attention to social equity and care more about grassroots people. It is necessary to establish a social coordination mechanism as soon as possible, guide the people to adjust and solve conflicts of interest through legal channels and forms, and safeguard social stability and unity. It is necessary to improve the appeal mechanism for the interests of the masses, such as letters and visits and the mayor's hotline, and guide the masses to rationally and legally reflect the situation and opinions to the party and the government. The relevant departments of the party and the government should seriously and responsibly answer and solve the problems reflected by the masses. It is necessary to establish a hearing system for major decisions, listen to the voices and opinions of the broad masses, and make it an important channel to communicate the relationship between the government and the masses and coordinate the interests of the masses. It is necessary to establish a social early warning mechanism and a security mechanism to respond to various emergencies in a timely and effective manner. In addition, we must improve and strengthen the mass work of the party and the government. We should always go deep into the masses, listen to their voices, do our work in depth, in detail, in reality, and in a down-to-earth manner, and give full play to its functions of dispelling doubts, rationalizing emotions, encouraging and inducing, and resolving contradictions.
Fourth, we should improve the ability of social management. To completely change the old system of enterprises running society in official enterprise, the government should return the power that belongs to enterprises to enterprises, hand over the things that should be managed by social organizations to social organizations, scientifically divide the responsibilities and management authority of the three, form a joint force of social management under the leadership of the government, and promote the harmonious and orderly development of society. At present, social management is a new and weakest field among the four management fields of economy, politics, culture and society in China. Exploring the laws of social management, cultivating social management talents, developing social management science, establishing and improving social management mechanism and constantly improving the level of social management have become an urgent and important task of the party and the government, which must be highly valued.