First, the status quo and problems of grassroots democracy and rule of law.
(A) the defects of the current street system in the construction of democracy and the rule of law
1, the street administration system is not perfect.
At present, street offices are generally located in the urban areas of county-level cities, belonging to the dispatched agencies of the municipal government, not the first-level government. At present, the sub-district office of our city exercises the functions of township government and has a level of finance. The leading members of the office are appointed, not elected. There are big working committees in the streets, but there are no people's congresses and no deputies to the people's congresses at the corresponding levels. Stations under the street, such as planning, land, industry and commerce, courts, etc. , has been vertically managed or dismantled, and cannot directly manage or guide the work. Only the police station is exercising the function of social security management. Therefore, the imperfection of the existing street administration system makes it difficult to promote the construction of democracy and the rule of law at the grassroots level.
2. The supervision system of street people's congresses is not perfect.
As an agency of the Standing Committee of the Municipal People's Congress, the Street People's Congress Working Committee has no deputies at the corresponding level. Therefore, it is impossible to conduct statutory deliberation on the annual work and annual budget and final accounts of the street office, and it is even more impossible to make democratic decisions on major issues in the street. Especially in the construction of supervision mechanism, it needs to be further improved and perfected. Although there are some contents in the working rules of the Street Working Committee of the Standing Committee of the Municipal People's Congress, such as "listening to the work reports of street offices and relevant departments in the street, making suggestions, criticisms and opinions, and implementing supervision according to law" and "putting forward opinions and suggestions on the annual financial revenue and expenditure and management of street offices, and implementing supervision and inspection", the intensity is not great and the measures are not strong. Moreover, the number of deputies to the Municipal People's Congress in this region is small, lacking universality and extensiveness. The supervision of the work of sub-district offices is carried out through the activities of the Municipal People's Congress, and the effect needs to be improved. Judging from these factors, it is difficult for the street people's congress working Committee to really and effectively play its supervisory function in accordance with the requirements of democracy and the rule of law.
(B) the status quo of village-level democracy and the rule of law and the main problems.
1. Judging from the village-level general election, there is an ideological obstacle in grassroots democracy and rule of law-farmers lack legal knowledge. The educational foundation in rural areas is weak, the cultural level of farmers needs to be improved, and backward ideological concepts and religious family awareness are still widespread, especially in the village-level general election, farmers do not know enough about the value of their votes and are easily disturbed in the election process. In order to win votes, some people use money and goods to bribe and threaten violence, which often happens at the grassroots level. In the eyes of some villagers, instead of casting an insignificant vote, it is better to change some benefits. When disturbed by the evil forces in rural areas, I don't know how to safeguard my legitimate right to vote.
2. From the perspective of villagers' election consciousness, there is a major obstacle to democracy and rule of law at the grassroots level-farmers' weak legal consciousness. In the process of the formation of villagers' autonomous organizations, form is often more important than content, and process is more important than result. In the process of promoting democratic governance at the grass-roots level in rural areas, as legislators, most of them pay attention to the reform of election methods, while few people pay attention to the improvement of farmers' awareness of participating in politics and civilization. When democratic governance is carried out in rural grass-roots units, villagers pay more attention to whether the candidates are directly elected and whether the election process is legal, while few villagers pay attention to whether the candidates can bear the role of democratic governance in rural grass-roots units. They should choose "people who have a good relationship with me, not people who have good jobs" in the election. In addition, when their rights are infringed, some farmers can't correctly reflect their demands, can't correctly use legal means to safeguard their rights according to law, and some don't know it yet, and appear in the form of "legal ignorance"; Some fear power and swallow their voices: some ignore the law, "fight violence with violence", and even lead to illegal crimes.
3. Judging from a large number of leapfrog petitions and collective petitions-there are environmental obstacles to democracy and the rule of law at the grassroots level-administration according to law is not standardized. With the reform of rural management system, rural management is facing new problems such as poor service consciousness, ineffective work guidance, unfair work and untimely solution of problems, which is bound to cause dissatisfaction among the masses, intensify social contradictions and make it difficult to promote the rule of law in rural areas. In addition, some cadres and masses are deeply influenced by Chinese traditional culture, emphasizing that the rule of man is more important than the rule of law, not understanding the importance of democracy and the rule of law, getting used to "the rule of man", that is, managing social affairs through human relations, ignoring the use of the rule of law to solve problems, which leads to the difficulty in implementing relevant laws and regulations in rural areas, and even illegal phenomena such as leapfrog petition, collective petition, and blocking government agencies to solve problems.
4. From the current situation of village-level management, village-level management is not standardized, which is an institutional obstacle to democracy and the rule of law at the grassroots level. Mainly reflected in the villagers' autonomy is a mere formality, and some villagers' committees are undemocratic in their deliberation and decision-making. If there is no hard constraint on village cadres, they have the final say and cannot truly reflect the original intention of political democracy. Some villagers' representatives have low quality, superficial views on problems, confused thoughts, playing the devil's advocate and playing the trumpet, which leads to the villagers' representative meeting unable to make correct decisions, or the villagers' meeting and the villagers' representative meeting system are not standardized and difficult to implement. These phenomena lead to the core values of "self-management, self-education and self-service" and "democratic election, democratic decision-making, democratic management and democratic supervision" of villagers' autonomy not being reflected and restricted. The rule of law is guaranteed by political democracy, and the defects of rural political democracy in practice have become obstacles to promoting the construction of rural rule of law.
Second, the role of street people's congresses in promoting the construction of democracy and the rule of law in rural areas.
Promoting the construction of democracy and the rule of law in rural areas is the focus of grassroots people's congresses in serving the construction of new countryside, and bears an important historical mission and responsibility. The street people's congress working Committee should firmly grasp this opportunity period and earnestly perform its duties. We should not only give full play to the important role of representative democracy, but also provide laws, regulations and organizational guarantees for farmers' direct democracy, and constantly promote the construction of rural democracy and the rule of law.
1, standardize the working mechanism and ensure the orderly operation of grass-roots governments. The Standing Committee of the Municipal People's Congress shall revise the working rules of the neighborhood committees of the National People's Congress, and clarify the specific requirements for the neighborhood committees to supervise the annual work of street offices, including the annual work plan, annual budget and year-end final accounts, and how to make democratic decisions on major issues in the annual work. The Municipal People's Government shall make specific provisions on the work and operation system of sub-district offices. By standardizing the work system, we can ensure the democratic management and administration according to law of grass-roots governments.
2. Innovate working methods and implement democratic decision-making on major issues. To actively explore the democratic decision-making role of grass-roots people's congresses on major issues in rural areas, we should constantly innovate methods in practice and be good at introducing democratic innovation carriers into the performance platform of municipal people's congresses to become places for public opinion expression, public sentiment communication and democratic decision-making. For example, representative activities and democratic forums on major street issues are held at the beginning of each year. Party representatives, CPPCC members, leading cadres in villages and representatives of the Municipal People's Congress are invited to hold a democratic forum on major issues in the streets for one year, and then the Municipal People's Congress will make democratic decisions to ensure the scientific nature of the decisions.
3, strengthen the publicity of law popularization, improve the legal awareness of grassroots people. Street people's congresses should play an active role in promoting the publicity and education of the rule of law in rural areas, urge the government to carry out extensive and in-depth legal education in rural areas, take the opportunity of popularizing the law in the "Fifth Five-Year Plan" as an opportunity, and focus on guiding farmers to abide by the law, and carry out publicity and education activities of the rule of law at multiple levels and through multiple channels. So as to continuously improve farmers' legal literacy and "subject" concept, so as to participate in rural democratic practice in an orderly manner according to law, enhance villagers' democratic consciousness by improving the concept of rule of law and the level of legal knowledge, improve farmers' basic quality of participating in politics, and actively participate in village Committee elections. Further enhance farmers' consciousness of safeguarding their legitimate rights and interests, exercising their democratic rights and fulfilling their obligations according to law, rationally and legally express various interests, and properly handle various social contradictions in rural areas. Through legal education, we will firmly establish the socialist concept of rule of law among farmers and rural cadres, cultivate the spirit of rule of law and legal literacy, and gradually form a good fashion of advocating, believing in, abiding by and upholding the law.
4, to carry out representative inspection, and urge the grass-roots government administration according to law. It is necessary to strengthen the supervision of government administrative actions, put forward opinions and suggestions through organizing municipal people's congress representatives to carry out inspections, investigations and studies, and give timely feedback, track and urge rectification, and enhance the intensity and effect of supervision. It is necessary to strengthen the inspection and supervision of compulsory education law, agricultural law, labor law, safety production law and other laws and regulations, and urge the government to take effective measures to give priority to the development of rural compulsory education, strengthen the responsibility of ensuring compulsory education, and realize the balanced development of education; Increase investment in rural medical construction, and effectively solve the problems of farmers' difficulty and expensive medical treatment; Strengthen the construction of agricultural ecological environment and the improvement of village appearance, and improve the rural living environment. Promote the administration of sub-district offices according to law through patrol inspection.
5. Standardize the operation mechanism and promote village-level democratic autonomy. Street people's congresses should strengthen supervision over the implementation of the organic law of villagers' committees, and urge street offices to standardize the operation mechanism of village-level autonomy in accordance with the requirements of the organic law. First, we should supervise the election of village committees. It is necessary to guarantee elections in accordance with the law, standardize various election procedures, improve the voter participation rate, ensure that voters fully exercise their democratic rights, severely investigate and punish illegal acts that infringe on voters' democratic rights, and ensure that voters truly enjoy the electoral rights conferred by law. The second is to urge sub-district offices to strengthen the construction and implementation of village-level affairs system and comprehensively standardize the operation mechanism of village-level management. It is necessary to deepen and standardize the democratic decision-making and management system at the village level, improve the village-level proceedings, strengthen the supervision and restraint on the exercise of the power of "village officials", and ensure that major issues must be submitted to the villagers' congresses for discussion and decision, so that villagers can become real masters and effectively exercise their rights as masters of their own affairs according to law. It is necessary to establish and improve a democratic supervision system with village affairs open, democratic appraisal and democratic financial management as the main means, and effectively take the issues that the masses are most concerned about and closely related to the interests of the masses as the focus of village affairs open, regularly check financial revenues and expenditures and their disclosure, correct problems in time, and trace their responsibilities. Only in this way can voters' voting rights, decision-making rights, management rights and supervision rights be truly implemented, and the transformation from "ruling villages by people" to "ruling villages by systems", "ruling villages by law" and "ruling villages by village officials" to "villagers' autonomy" can be gradually realized.
6. Play a representative role and promote democracy and the rule of law at the grassroots level. Street People's Congress Working Committee should play a representative role and actively participate in the management of local state affairs and various social undertakings. Through extensive contact with the people and listening to their voices, farmers' pursuit of different interests can be fully expressed and embodied in accordance with the law and in an orderly manner. It is necessary to investigate and inspect issues that concern the masses and involve their vital interests, especially those that hinder the construction of democracy and the rule of law at the grassroots level, and urge the government and relevant departments to correct them. Street People's Congress Working Committee should do a good job in tracking and supervising the motions, opinions and suggestions of the Municipal People's Congress, strive to improve the quality and effectiveness of handling, improve the satisfaction rate of the deputies and the masses, and truly give play to the demonstration and exemplary role of the Municipal People's Congress in the construction of grassroots democracy and the rule of law.
The construction of grass-roots democratic politics is a work related to social stability and harmonious development, and it is the cause of the whole society. Grass-roots people's congresses have much to offer. Therefore, street people's congresses should base themselves on their own responsibilities, constantly explore and practice, and play their due role in promoting the construction of socialist rule of law.