Keywords: social construction; Focus; Improve people's livelihood
Comrade Hu Jintao put forward in the report of the 17th National Congress: "Social construction is closely related to people's happiness and well-being. On the basis of economic development, we should pay more attention to social construction, focus on safeguarding and improving people's livelihood, promote social system reform, expand public services, improve social management, promote social fairness and justice, and strive to make all people learn to teach, earn income from work, get medical care, provide for the elderly, live and live, and promote the construction of a harmonious society. "
First, strengthening social construction is the need of the times.
1. Strengthening social construction is the inherent requirement of implementing Scientific Outlook on Development.
At present, China is experiencing "four profound changes", namely, profound changes in economic system, social structure, interest pattern and ideological concept. This unprecedented social change, on the one hand, has brought great vitality to China's economic and social development, and surprised the world with the development speed of China. Since the reform and opening up, especially in the past five years, China's economy has maintained a "super-high speed" higher than the world average; On the other hand, it will inevitably bring such contradictions and problems, including the great pressure of population, resources and environment on development, the increasing inequality of class, gender, urban and rural areas and regions, and the approaching shadow of ecological disaster. These contradictions have led to a great centrifugal trend among different classes, regions and even ethnic groups in China. Once faced with the global economic and political crisis, we will lack favorable room for manoeuvre. As the report of the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China said, "The world is undergoing extensive and profound changes, and so is contemporary China. Opportunities are unprecedented, challenges are unprecedented, and opportunities outweigh challenges. " This requires us to seize the opportunity, earnestly strengthen social construction and resolve the risks in development. On the basis of economic development, strengthening social construction, coordinating economic and social development, taking into account and coordinating various interests in the process of reform and development, and promoting the coordinated development of all links and aspects of modernization itself is to thoroughly implement the inherent requirements of Scientific Outlook on Development.
2. Realizing social modernization is an outstanding task to continue to promote the modernization process in China.
The world is a stage and modernization is a competition. China is also an athlete in the world modernization competition. In this international competition, China's modernization process is mainly promoted in economic, political, cultural, military and other fields, and its social modernization process started late, so that at present, China's economic modernization process has been at the leading level of developing countries, and it also belongs to underdeveloped countries in social modernization. World social modernization includes the first social modernization and the second social modernization. China's first social modernization has not yet been completed, but the developed countries already have the factors of the second social modernization. The second social modernization in developed countries represents the advanced level and development direction of social modernization, and knowledge, informationization and greening are the typical characteristics of the second social modernization. We chose six indicators of the second social modernization for comparison. Obviously, there is a big gap in China: the per capita information fee gap is more than 40 times that of China in the United States, Sweden, Norway and Japan; The gap in per capita public education funds between the United States, Sweden and Norway is more than 50 times that of China. The gap between American and Norwegian per capita public health expenditure is more than 100 times that of China; Other factors, such as computer penetration rate, Internet penetration rate, university penetration rate, energy efficiency and so on, are also far behind those in developed countries in China. Therefore, accelerating social construction is the need to promote the overall process of China's modernization.
The goal of China's international status of social modernization is to reach the intermediate level of world social modernization in the first 50 years of 2 1 century and the advanced level in the second 50 years of 2 1 century. In order to achieve this goal, on February 7th, 2008, China Modernization Strategy Research Group put forward three strategic priorities to promote China's social modernization, namely, quality of life, social transformation and national quality, and thought that the modernization of quality of life should be the top priority.
Second, strengthening social construction is forced by reality.
Entering the new century and new stage, the development of China stands at a new historical starting point. We have achieved the first and second steps of the three-step strategy of modernization. The people have basically solved the problem of food and clothing, reached a well-off level in general, and started to build a well-off society in an all-round way. Socialist modernization has entered a new stage of development. In the report of the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Comrade Hu Jintao expounded a series of stage characteristics of China's development in the new century and new stage, including eight aspects. That is, the economic strength has been significantly enhanced, while the overall level of productivity is not high, the ability of independent innovation is not strong, and the long-standing structural contradictions and extensive growth mode have not been fundamentally changed; With the initial establishment of the socialist market economic system, the institutional and institutional obstacles affecting development still exist, and the reform faces deep-seated contradictions and problems; People's lives have generally reached a well-off level, but the trend of widening income distribution gap has not been fundamentally reversed, and there are still a considerable number of poor and low-income people in urban and rural areas, making it more difficult to take into account the interests of all parties; Coordinated development has achieved remarkable results. At the same time, the weak agricultural foundation and backward rural development have not changed. It is an arduous task to narrow the gap between urban and rural development and promote coordinated economic and social development. With the continuous development of socialist democracy, the basic strategy of governing the country according to law has been implemented. At the same time, the requirements of building democracy and legal system and expanding people's democracy and economic and social development have not been fully met, and the political system reform needs to be deepened. Socialist culture is more prosperous, people's spiritual and cultural needs are increasingly strong, and the independence, selectivity, variability and differences of people's ideological activities are obviously enhanced, which puts forward higher requirements for the development of advanced socialist culture; Social vitality has been significantly enhanced, social structure, social organization form and social interest pattern have undergone profound changes, and social construction and management are facing many new topics; Opening to the outside world is expanding day by day, and international competition is becoming increasingly fierce. The pressure of economic and technological hegemony in developed countries has existed for a long time, and the foreseeable and unpredictable risks have increased, which puts forward higher requirements for coordinating domestic development and opening up. At present, China's reform and development has entered a critical period, and a series of stage characteristics have emerged, which urgently requires strengthening social construction.
1. The development of public welfare undertakings such as education and medical care is lagging behind, and the supply of public goods and services is insufficient. Both public schools and hospitals should be non-profit organizations. With the trend of "education industrialization" and "medical marketization", the phenomena of "can't afford to go to school" and "can't afford to look down on the disease" occur from time to time, which has caused social problems such as the tension between doctors and patients and the decline of education quality, and has become a new social instability factor. In recent years, the average annual growth rate of outpatient expenses and hospitalization expenses in hospitals is 13% and1%,which greatly exceeds the growth rate of residents' income. Patients with "financial difficulties" or "inability to reimburse" especially express strong dissatisfaction with the high hospital fees, and generally dare not be hospitalized easily.
The scale of education in China has expanded rapidly at the fastest speed in the world, but the proportion of fiscal education expenditure in GDP has not increased. In 2005, the fiscal expenditure on education was 395.2 billion yuan, accounting for only 2. 16% of GDP, which was lower than 2.79% in 2004, 2.59% in 2006 and 2.86% in 2007, which was far from the international average of 6%. As a result, China's per capita financial expenditure on education is only 1/4 of the average level of developing countries, and it is listed as the eighth lowest in the world by UNESCO. At the same time, most of the rapidly expanding expenditure of the education sector is passed on to the public through fees. Statistics show that the difference between the national fiscal education expenditure and the national total education expenditure increased from 1993 to 192 billion in 2004 to 277.6 billion. A considerable part of this huge difference comes from families with students. It is conceivable that the burden of the people is heavy. At present, Chinese parents have spent more on their children's education than on old-age care and housing, ranking first in the total consumption of residents.
2. Social security and public safety issues are more prominent, and social control functions need to be strengthened. On the one hand, with the rapid development of economy, the intensification of population mobility, the wide application of new technologies and the gradual increase of unstable factors in modern society, social security issues are characterized by suddenness, concealment and complexity. On the other hand, in recent years, accidents have occurred frequently in the fields of safety production and public health, and local epidemics have suddenly occurred. In 2007, Hongtong County, Shanxi Province was famous for two events that sensationalized the whole country in one year: the "black brick kiln" in the first half of the year and the "big mine disaster" in the second half of the year. After each mine accident, despite the statement of Li, director of the State Administration of Work Safety, and the assurance of local officials, mine accidents still occur frequently. There are comments and suggestions that Li, the "busiest fire brigade captain in China", should put his desk all over the country.
3. The problem of employment and social equity is outstanding, which requires strengthening the function of social security. At present, it is a very heavy social topic that more than 200 million rural surplus laborers need to be transferred, laid-off workers are re-employed and college graduates are employed. There are 5.59 million college graduates in 2008, and the employment situation is very severe. The civil service exam, known as "the first exam in China", is more competitive than the college entrance examination. It is reported that at 0: 00 on June 3, 2007, the online registration of civil servants for the 2008 annual examination of the central organs and their directly affiliated institutions ended. Among them, the proportion of applicants for the post of "office clerk" in the general office of the Ministry of Agriculture reached 1:3592. At present, the problems of unfair distribution and excessive income distribution gap in China are increasingly prominent; For example, China Ping An Chairman Ma Mingzhe's annual salary is 66 16 1000 yuan, with an average of 18 1200 yuan per day. Wu Yi, the newly retired vice premier of the State Council, earns only 65,438+200,000 yuan a year, including the nanny fee. In other words, the annual salary of state-owned enterprise leaders is 55 1 times that of vice premier. Wu Yi's annual income is more than 60,000 yuan less than the daily salary of state-owned enterprise leaders. At the same time, the basic life of vulnerable groups represented by migrant workers and laid-off workers has not been completely solved. However, social security, as a social safety valve, needs to be improved. Judging from the proportion of social security expenditure in total fiscal expenditure, the proportion of social security expenditure has basically not increased in recent years.
4. The problem of population and environment is outstanding, which requires strengthening the social coordination function.
At the end of 2007, there were 680 million male compatriots and 640 million female compatriots in China, with a difference of 40 million men and women; The population over 60 is 65,438+53.4 million, accounting for 1 1.6% of the total population. Even more frightening, experts predict that by 2040, we will form a peak of the elderly population, and the population over 60 will reach 430 million. This will pose a certain threat to the social development of China. In the process of development, it has caused serious ecological damage and environmental pollution. The American International Herald Tribune reported that the environmental deterioration and pollution in China are distressing. 700 million people often drink unclean water, and 16 of the 20 most polluted cities in the world are in China. The water environment of the Yangtze River, the largest river in China, has deteriorated seriously, and experts believe that it has "early cancer": hundreds of millions of tons of coastal sediments have been washed away by water, and the ancient forests have dropped sharply; In the past, the Jiangnan waterway, where blue waves rippled and merchant ships gathered, is now full of domestic garbage. "Keeping the Yangtze River without water to drink" has become an indisputable fact in many places ... Experts shouted: If the Yangtze River is not protected in time, it may become the second Yellow River within ten years!
These people generally reflect the strongest hot issues and urgently demand to strengthen social construction.
Social construction itself is a complex systematic project, so where can we find a breakthrough to promote social construction?
Third, promoting social construction must focus on improving people's livelihood.
Why does the current social construction in China adopt the strategy of focusing on promotion? This is because, on the one hand, China is still in the primary stage of social construction and social modernization, and it is imperative to lay a good foundation for social construction. On the other hand, China is currently in the primary stage of socialism, and its national strength is still relatively weak, lacking the objective and institutional basis for comprehensively promoting social construction. In this context, China's social construction can only be promoted from key construction to all-round construction. The current focus is on solving people's livelihood problems.
What is the livelihood issue? Generally speaking, people's livelihood issues are closely related to daily life such as food, clothing, housing, transportation, illness and death, and can also be said to be various problems encountered by ordinary people. In the words of sociology, it is a question of how a social member can obtain social resources and opportunities for survival and development from society and government to support his material and spiritual life.
Improving people's livelihood has become the focus of social construction, mainly because:
First of all, people's livelihood is a concentrated expression of the people-oriented ruling concept. People-oriented and scientific development are the ruling ideas put forward and adhered to by our party since it entered the new century. People-oriented as our party's ruling philosophy is to put the people's interests first, pay attention to the interests of all walks of life in China, pay attention to everyone's survival and development, and regard "people's livelihood and civil rights" and everyone's all-round development as the final destination of Socialism with Chinese characteristics's construction. The implementation of this ruling idea is reflected in the solution of people's livelihood issues. People-oriented, the first is people's life. In earthquake relief, "life is above everything else" has become a silent command. This respect for life is the resolute figure of the general secretary in the earthquake-stricken areas where aftershocks continue, the emotional tears of the former prime minister, the iron will of hundreds of thousands of soldiers who are desperate, and the deep friendship of the people of the whole country. In order to express deep condolences to the victims of the Wenchuan earthquake, the State Council decided to observe the national mourning day from May 19 to May 2 1 2008. When the national flag of the Republic of China was lowered for the common people, and when hundreds of millions of people mourned with this country, the solemn ceremony was used to show the flesh-and-blood ties between the government and the people, and the ruling concept of "people's livelihood first" was interpreted.
Secondly, people's livelihood is the most basic source of frequent social contradictions. China's social transformation has been accelerated, and with the advancement of industrialization, urbanization, informationization and marketization, social differentiation has intensified. Who am I? where am I going? Do I benefit from social change or suffer? Every major social change will lead to the repositioning of social members in the changing or about to change social structure. Today, China is undergoing drastic social changes. Although the macro surface is calm, the micro interior has been churning. A considerable number of ordinary people subjectively put themselves at the bottom of society, full of hatred and antipathy to the rich, and have different degrees of dissatisfaction and antipathy to government agencies because of corruption and other reasons. In recent years, a series of livelihood problems, such as difficulties in seeing a doctor, going to school, paying wages, housing, litigation, safeguarding rights and mine accidents, all reflect that ordinary people are not only economically disadvantaged groups, but also politically disadvantaged groups. So they have a strong sense of injustice, and even a sense of relative deprivation. Coupled with the lack of an effective interest expression mechanism, the number of protests and disturbances has increased year by year. According to the social sampling survey conducted by the Institute of Sociology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, most residents have obvious feelings about social contradictions and conflicts, and only 16.3% people think that there is no conflict. Regarding the question "Is it possible to intensify the conflict of interests among social groups in China", 39% people hold a negative attitude, 38.6% people hold a positive attitude, and 22.4% people are hesitant, and they can't tell whether it is possible to intensify. These results show that what might have been a potential group interest contradiction has become a recognized social interest contradiction; The trend of intensification of social interest contradictions is also quite obvious. Therefore, to solve social problems and achieve social harmony, we must first solve the people's livelihood problems.
Thirdly, people's livelihood issues are the basis for avoiding risks and ensuring safety. Safety is the most basic requirement of every member of society. Now China society has entered a risk period of social development, or a risk society and a high-risk society, and the security problem is more prominent. The security needs of a society involve two basic aspects: one is the security needs of the whole society and the country (social security), and the other is the security needs of individuals in daily life (personal safety). In the past, our main concern was social and national security, which was undoubtedly very important. The problem is that we ignore the sense of security in our personal life to some extent. In fact, personal safety is a more frequent and common problem faced by every member of society.
At present, the insecurity of members of China society mainly comes from two aspects: "realistic dilemma", that is, practical difficulties or problems encountered in personal life; The second is "future threats", that is, threats or risks that may be caused to personal life. These two aspects are livelihood issues related to the vital interests of members of society. People's livelihood issues can be said to be the connection point between personal security and overall social security. The former leads to "reality irritability" and the latter leads to "expectation anxiety". They will all constitute people's worries, seriously affect the sense of security of social members and reduce the social security index.
Let's look at the hot topic of the two sessions this year-price. Since May 2007, there has been a marked price increase in China, and the first two months of 2008 were no exception. CPI rose by 7. 1% in June, 8.7% in February, 8.3% in March and 8.5% in April. Food prices, which are closely related to people's lives, rose by 23.3% year-on-year in February, among which pork prices rose by 63.4%, which made some meat people reluctant to cut meat. High housing prices make young people become house slaves, and the medical records of "house slaves" who come to psychological counseling are piled high. Coupled with the increase in bank interest, 98% of mortgage borrowers are very anxious.
The insecurity of the civilian class comes from education and survival. Do rich people feel insecure? The insecurity of the rich comes from unrecognized power and huge uncertain property, "and the collision of these two insecurities will lead to crime and escalate the danger." The "insecurity" caused by this social problem cannot be solved and eliminated by deep houses, German shepherd bodyguards or any "kidnapping insurance". It also shows us a simple and important truth: without the alleviation and solution of people's livelihood problems, there will be no social security.
If it is said that whether social construction can be effectively promoted is a test of the ability of the party and the government and the cultivation of its legitimacy foundation in the new period, then it is more direct to take improving people's livelihood as the focus of social construction. Taking improving people's well-being as the biggest goal of reform and opening up. The report of the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out: "All the struggles and work of the Party are for the benefit of the people." It is necessary to "strive to make all the people learn to be taught, work hard, get medical care, have a good old age and live in a house." This is both the direction of development and the goal of reform and opening up. This shows that in the future, the focus of reform and opening up is to closely focus on the new requirements and expectations of the people, and the foothold is to meet the most concerned, immediate, direct and realistic interests of the people. The achievements of reform and opening up will benefit all the people to the greatest extent, and truly reflect the essence of our party's building the party for the public and governing for the people and the fundamental purpose of serving the people wholeheartedly.
References:
[1] Report of the 17th National Congress [M]. Beijing: People's Publishing House, 2007.
[2] Interpretation of China People's Livelihood Policy [M]. Beijing: Central Party School Press, 2007.
[3] Lu Xiaowen. Social Construction: World Experience and China Road [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai People's Publishing House, 2007.