(A) the process of administrative system reform in China since the reform and opening up and its enlightenment.
Since the reform and opening up, China has carried out five administrative system reforms:
1982 The reform was carried out in accordance with the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee. At the same time, the organization was greatly streamlined, mainly to solve the problems of the leadership system and the actual life tenure of leading cadres.
1988 the reform was carried out in accordance with the spirit of the thirteenth national congress of the communist party of China. While streamlining administrative institutions and personnel, the problem of transforming government functions is put forward.
1993 the reform was carried out in accordance with the spirit of the 14th Party Congress. An administrative management system adapted to the needs of the socialist market economic system has been established, and government functions have been transformed. Party and government organs have generally implemented the "three decisions", established a civil service system, and implemented a tax-sharing financial management system.
The 1998 reform carried out in accordance with the spirit of the 15th National Congress of the Communist Party of China is the largest administrative system reform since the founding of the People's Republic of China, which clearly defines the functions of the government as macro-control, social management and public service. There has been a new breakthrough in separating government from enterprises, and the party and government organs are decoupled from the economic entities they run and the enterprises directly managed; Part of the examination and approval authority and specific daily work of the central departments have been delegated to local governments, and the number of institutions and personnel in the State Council has been greatly reduced.
The reform in 2003 was carried out in accordance with the spirit of the 16th CPC National Congress. In accordance with the principle of simplification, unification and efficiency and the requirements of coordination of decision-making, implementation and supervision, we will further transform government functions, adjust the establishment of government institutions, rationalize the division of functions among departments, reduce administrative examination and approval, improve the level of government management, and strive to form an administrative management system with standardized behavior, coordinated operation, fairness, transparency, honesty and efficiency.
In addition, in 2004, governments at all levels also took the implementation of the Administrative Licensing Law as an opportunity to implement the Outline of Comprehensively Promoting Administration according to Law, intensify the cleanup of administrative examination and approval items, deepen the reform of the administrative examination and approval system, and made remarkable progress. The Civil Service Law promulgated in April 2005 has also had an important impact on standardizing administrative subjects and strengthening the construction of civil servants.
Constantly adapting to the requirements of economic and social development, significant progress has been made in five administrative system reforms: First, the number of government agencies has decreased. As far as the State Council institutions (including functional departments, directly affiliated institutions, general offices, directly affiliated institutions and ad hoc institutions) are concerned, the number of institutions before the reform of 1982 was 100, and after the reform of 1988, it was 86, and now it is reduced to 66; Second, the institutional setup tends to be reasonable. Most of the existing government departments are set up according to the requirements of market economy, and most of the industrial departments set up according to product industries during the planned economy period were cancelled or merged; Government functions have changed, and economic regulation, market supervision, social management and public services have been clearly defined as the main functions of the government; Third, the administrative management mode has also changed. From the past mainly relying on administrative means to the present mainly relying on economic and legal means; Fourth, progress has been made in administration according to law and building a government ruled by law. The implementation of the Administrative Licensing Law and the reform of the administrative examination and approval system have achieved remarkable results. The State Council cancelled and adjusted 1806 items of examination and approval in three batches, accounting for 50. 1% of the total number of administrative examination and approval items before the reform, and the administrative efficiency was obviously improved. In recent years, various localities have begun to reform township institutions and accumulated relevant experience in practice.
After more than 20 years of reform, the government functions have changed, the separation of government from enterprise has been continuously promoted, the institutions and personnel have been streamlined, and the cadre structure has been optimized. It should be said that the current administrative management system basically meets the requirements of economic and social development, and also conforms to the national conditions of China. In the process of reform, we have accumulated many successful experiences and gained some enlightenment from them.
First, the reform of the administrative management system must proceed from China's national conditions, which is conducive to upholding the party's leadership, improving administrative efficiency, and ensuring that the government can fully play its role in reform, development and stability. The reform of administrative management system is the connection and intersection of various reforms, which plays a decisive role, and will inevitably touch on deep-seated problems and contradictions, and touch on the complicated interest relationship and the adjustment of interest pattern. The key to the smooth progress and success of previous reforms lies in upholding the party's leadership. All reform measures are implemented in accordance with the central government's major decisions and strategic arrangements on economic and social development, focusing on improving administrative efficiency and ensuring that the government plays an important role in reform, development and stability. Therefore, we must base ourselves on the reality of our country, understand the stage of development and the practical problems and contradictions we are facing, understand the political, economic, cultural and social characteristics of our country, learn from the useful experience and practices of foreign countries, and emphasize that it is for our own use and cannot be copied.
Second, the reform of administrative management system must meet the requirements of economic and social development. Looking at the course of China's administrative system reform, we can find that the task of administrative system reform is often put forward by the development of economy and society to a certain extent, and adapting to the requirements of economic and social development is the starting point and main driving force of administrative system reform. For example, during the planned economy period, China set up a number of ministries and commissions according to industries, and only the Ministry of Machinery Industry set up seven ministries and commissions, which led to the emergence of a number of enterprises directly under the central government or subordinate enterprises, forming a serious "compartmentalization" problem. In order to meet the needs of economic reform, the management departments of relevant economic departments have been adjusted to better solve the contradictions between the government and enterprises and between the government and the market.
Third, the reform of administrative management system is a systematic project, which cannot be accomplished overnight. The administrative management system is related to all aspects of economic and social life, and the reform of the administrative management system plays an important role. There is a complex and close relationship between the administrative management system and politics, economy and society. Therefore, we should not only adjust the internal functions of administrative organs, but also coordinate the reform of public departments and institutions, handle the relationship between government and enterprises and political affairs, and pay more attention to the accurate positioning and practical transformation of government functions.
Fourth, the reform of administrative management system needs to be scientific and ruled by law. Because most of the reforms are carried out by the government itself from top to bottom, the government is not only the executor and promoter of the reform, but also the direct object of the reform, and the role conflict also hinders the deepening of the reform to a certain extent. In particular, the reform involves the readjustment of the pattern of power and interests, which increases the difficulty of the reform of the administrative management system. In addition, the policy of reform is strong, which needs scientific argumentation to improve the degree of rule of law.
(B) The current administrative system reform in China needs further study and solution.
The reform of administrative management system is a gradual deepening process, which cannot be achieved overnight, and some problems can only be solved step by step; At the same time, with the development of economy and society and the deepening of reform, there will be many new problems that need to be solved through further administrative system reform. Therefore, the reform of administrative management system is a phased and continuous process, which needs to constantly study new situations and solve new problems.
First, the transformation of government functions is not in place. After all previous administrative system reforms, government functions have changed greatly, but they have not been completely transferred to economic regulation, market supervision, social management and public services. On the one hand, economic functions have not adapted to the requirements of the socialist market economic system, and many things should not be managed, and there are still too many administrative examination and approval items. After the implementation of the Administrative Licensing Law, although many administrative examination and approval items have been reduced, due to some administrative inertia and the interests of departments and industries formed over the years, unnecessary administrative examination and approval and disguised administrative examination and approval still exist in large numbers, and the areas that should be withdrawn have not been completely withdrawn. In some localities and departments, the government still plays a major role in resource allocation. In addition, the factor market is underdeveloped, and it is difficult to give full play to the basic role of the market in resource allocation.
On the other hand, the government's social management and public service functions need to be further strengthened. Rapid economic growth and profound social changes have led to the rapid growth of social public demand. Especially when the social structure changes greatly and social contradictions occur frequently, the government's public service function is more important. If the function transformation is not in place, many new problems in economic and social life will be difficult to solve. Therefore, the effective transformation of functions is the key to deepen the reform of administrative management system.
Second, the administrative organization is unreasonable, with too many levels, unclear responsibilities among departments and poor coordination. After 1988, several administrative system reforms have achieved certain results in streamlining institutions, simplifying administration and decentralizing power, but there are still some problems in institutional setup, division of powers and operation methods.
From the perspective of institutional setup, government departments at all levels often continue the customary practice of "matching up and down". While obeying the government at the same level, functional departments have to accept the guidance of higher authorities, resulting in repeated setup of government departments at all levels and bloated institutions. The grass-roots administrative management system is very typical. In order to fulfill the task of "reaching the standard" set by the higher level government, the county and township governments have to set up institutions and increase personnel. In the case of insufficient staffing, they set up many temporary institutions and arranged some temporary personnel, resulting in overstaffing of institutions and personnel. In the absence of effective management and restraint, the number of township institutions and personnel is increasing, and the cost of maintaining operation and the salary of personnel are also increasing, which leads to the continuous expansion of township financial expenditure and the continuous increase of township financial debt ratio.
From the perspective of hierarchical relationship, all previous institutional reforms started from the horizontal division of organizational setup, and controlled the expansion of government institutions and the increase of personnel from the scale, but rarely involved vertical stratification. According to the provisions of Article 30 of the Constitution, except for large cities and autonomous prefectures, local administrative levels are generally three levels: provincial, county and township. However, with the increase of administrative offices (regions) changing into cities, some places have seen the situation that counties and cities have jurisdiction over cities, and the local administrative level has actually become four levels. Too many levels can easily lead to bloated institutions, poor information, low efficiency and high administrative costs.
From the perspective of institutional responsibilities, due to the unclear division of functions within the government, the lack of legal effect of the division of powers and responsibilities, and the influence of the drafting of legislation by departments, it is difficult to coordinate some administrative affairs after conflicts, such as multi-head management, repeated cross-enforcement, linking power with interests, and even overlapping or overlapping powers of different departments. Or pass the buck, creating a "management vacuum" and decoupling power from responsibility.
Third, the relationship between the central and local governments needs to be further straightened out. In some aspects, there are some problems, such as insufficient central authority and unity, blocked implementation of central macro policies in some places, serious local protectionism, insufficient decentralization to local governments, insufficient display of local autonomy and enthusiasm, etc. The power, financial power and power of governments at all levels still do not match; It is not enough to adjust the relationship between the central and local governments by legal means, and the level of institutionalization and standardization is low, so it is difficult to ensure the necessary stability and predictability.
Fourth, the reform of administrative management system is incompatible with the construction of administrative legal system. For a long time, we are used to managing economic and social affairs by administrative means, which leads to the lack of legal protection for the process and results of administrative management system reform. For example, the lack of legal norms and guarantees is the main reason why institutional reform has decreased and increased, and it has fallen into the strange circle of "simplification-expansion". Judging from the main means to solve the expansion of organizational structure in the world, one is financial means and the other is legal means, but it is mainly legal means, and financial means can only play a hard binding role through law in the end. Apart from the general provisions of the Constitution, at present, there is neither a unified law on administrative organization and establishment nor a law on administrative organization and establishment of various departments, nor a related law to promote reform. The existing organic laws of the State Council, local people's congresses and local people's governments at all levels, and other individual laws and policy documents, have no clear provisions on the establishment, functions, establishment, authority, the relationship between the central and local governments, and the funding guarantee mechanism, and lack detailed responsibility clauses. Too flexible regulations and the disharmony between national laws and regulations and local regulations also increase the contradictions in implementation.
(C) the necessity and urgency of further reform of the administrative management system
The new central collective leadership, with Comrade Hu Jintao as the general secretary, put forward that Scientific Outlook on Development should take the overall situation of economic and social development, and stressed the need to speed up the transformation of government functions, continue to improve the administrative management system, and form an administrative management system with standardized behavior, coordinated operation, fairness, transparency, honesty and efficiency. This fully reflects the objective requirements of China's economic and social development.
Reforming the administrative management system and improving the economic legal system are the objective requirements of adhering to the basic strategy of governing the country according to law, comprehensively promoting administration according to law and building a government ruled by law. Governing the country according to law and building a socialist country ruled by law have been enshrined in our constitution as the basic strategy of governing the country. Administration according to law is an important part of the basic strategy of governing the country according to law. To comprehensively promote administration according to law and build a government ruled by law is to promote the reform process by legal means, fix the reform results in legal form, and finally provide legal guarantee for the establishment of a modern administrative management system.
It is necessary to reform the administrative management system and improve the economic and legal system to implement Scientific Outlook on Development. Scientific Outlook on Development emphasizes people-oriented and promotes comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable economic and social development and all-round human development. This requires us to focus on economic construction, pay more attention to the coordination of major interests and social redistribution, and strive to solve social equity. To implement Scientific Outlook on Development, it is necessary to improve the relevant security mechanism, change government functions, rationally set up administrative institutions, straighten out the relationship between the central and local governments, establish a set of performance evaluation standards and law enforcement responsibility system that meet the requirements of Scientific Outlook on Development, and promote comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable economic and social development.
Reforming the administrative management system and perfecting the economic and legal system are the inevitable requirements for building a harmonious socialist society. The government strictly manages according to law and provides all kinds of public goods and services in an open, transparent and fair way, which can promote fairness and justice; In accordance with the Constitution and laws, the people manage state affairs, economic and cultural undertakings and social affairs through various channels and forms, so as to better achieve social harmony and realize the free and all-round development of society and people. Government departments should strictly administer according to law, so as not to be offside, absent or absent, better resolve various social contradictions and disputes, and promote the construction of a harmonious society.
Reforming the administrative management system and perfecting the economic and legal system are the needs to cope with the development of economic globalization. In a sense, economic globalization is not only the competition between industries and productivity in various countries, but also the competition among governments in providing administrative capabilities such as systems, environment, public goods and services. Which country provides a better investment environment and institutional arrangements, a more stable and predictable legal environment, which country can survive and develop better. At the same time, the development of economic globalization has also put forward new tasks for the government to perform its functions of safeguarding national security and participating in international affairs. In addition, it is urgent to reform the administrative system and improve the economic and legal systems in order to reduce the financial pressure of the government and adapt to the development trend of administrative socialization.