Academic Topic on the Modernization of State Governance

-- A lecture by Professor Yan Jirong

November 22, 2019

 Hosted by the Institute for China & World Studies and the School of Political Science & International Relations (SPSIR) of Tongji University, the Tongji Serial Lectures on Social Sciences No.18 & the Tongji Advanced Lectures for Graduate Students No.41 was successfully held in the lecture hall on the first floor of Yifu Building, Siping Campus, Tongji University on November 22, 2019. Professor Yan Jirong, Executive Vice Dean of the School of Government at Peking University and a Changjiang Scholar, was invited to give a keynote speech entitled “Academic Topic on the Modernization of State Governance” for Tongji teachers and students. This lecture was moderated by Professor Xu Hong, Secretary of the Party Committee of SPSIR.

 Prof. Yan is rich in theoretical knowledge and academic experience. He analyzed and explained how China can translate its institutional advantages into governance efficiency from the theoretical perspective of the relationship between institutional arrangement and national governance, and based on the practical experiences of other countries in the world. He pointed out that national governance and institutional arrangement were once again put on the agenda at the just-concluded Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee, and the plenary session also attributed China’s economic miracle and social stability to the basic institutional arrangements. The report has summarized the advantages of China’s institutions and governance system, proposed to turn China’s institutional advantages into governance efficiency, and defined the overall goal of upholding and improving the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics and continuing to modernize China’s system and capacity for governance. The goal indicates that institutions in all fields will become more mature by 2021; institutions in all fields will be further improved, and the modernization of China’s system and capacity for governance will be basically achieved by 2035; the modernization of China’s system and capacity for governance will be fully achieved, and the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics will be further consolidated and improved by 2049.

 On this basis, Prof. Yan discussed from the following three dimensions:

 First, reform is aimed at improving the state governance. Why are there differences in governance performance? Regarding this question, Prof. Yan proposed a series of indicators for evaluating state governance. He told the audience the definition of "good governance", the tasks of state governance, the nature of competition between nations, and the dimensions of national capabilities, explained what kind of development and governance China needs based on the logic of how a state works, and put forward that "development is the absolute principle, and governance is part of the soft power", which means both development and governance are needed.

 Second, the level of state governance depends on institutional supply. What conditions are needed for the institutional supply of a country enjoying enduring peace and stability? Prof. Yan pointed out that “enduring peace and stability” is a goal set by the people for state governance. Good governance is composed of governance of both officials and citizens, of both internal and foreign affairs, with the state-society relationship at its core. According to the two-way movement interpretation model for social sciences introduced by him, development and governance correspond to the "power" and "brake" systems. Development is more of a natural, spontaneous, civil and social force; and as an artificial design, governance is driven by the state and government forces. A country must do a good job in both development and governance so that it can enjoy enduring peace and stability. Institutional supply is designed to solve the problem of who will govern, what to govern and how to govern. The miracle of development can only be possible when good institutions meet good policies.

 Third, institutional advantage is a relative concept. "Relative" here includes three different aspects: relative to the development stage of a country, relative to the problems to be solved and the goals to be realized, and the comparison of different institutional arrangements in solving similar problems. The key is how to translate the institutional advantages in theory into national efficiency in practice? As such, Prof. Yan shared the governance experience of the United States. He asked: Why was there no social revolution in the US even if the American people’s trust in the federal government continued to decline from 1958 to 2013? The reason is that the social foundation of the US is relatively stable, and the American people have been relatively satisfied with the state or local governments. Back to China, China’s state governance features “government leadership + social participation”. There are obvious governance advantages and institutional support, as well as shortcomings like structural conduction block. China must address the concerns of the people to make its institutions more mature and solid.

 Finally, by introducing what the world's leading states, what successful states and failed states are like, and what governance dilemmas major countries will encounter, Prof. Yan discussed the core issue of how to modernize China’s capacity for governance: avoiding revolution and preventing from disintegration. In the new era of the socialism with Chinese characteristics, in order to improve its institution building and governance capabilities, China must deepen the reform, reset the reform goals, and find new drivers for the reform. Prof. Yan assumed that China would innovate concepts, shift the catch-up strategy into the improvement strategy, pursue “development & governance”, seek governable development or development under good governance, and achieve consistency in internal and foreign affairs; The overall principle of the reform is to improve weak links, strengthen the foundation of the rule of law, promote coordinated advantages, improve protection on civil rights, strengthen social governance, realize the synergy between state and society and the interaction between government and citizens, and build a fair social system. The teachers and students present were inspired by Prof. Yan’s speech that combined profound theory with practical experience in state governance, and impressed by his rich knowledge reserve and solid theoretical foundation.