By Liu Lihui & Shen He, Research Team on “Innovation Development of China’s Social Governance”, Institute of Public Administration and Human Resources, DRC

Research report Issue No.146, 2017 (Total 5221) 2017-11-8

Abstract: Accelerating the institutional innovation in social governance is an important part of the modernization of state governing system. At present, the Chinese government is facing the transformation of its administrative role in social governance, which requires a well-defined power and responsibility. It is imperative to realize the transformation from social management to social governance, from an all-round type government to a service-oriented government, and from administrative management to law-based governance. Jiangsu is a big province in China, in terms of economic aggregate and population size. Some cities and counties in Jiangsu province launched pilot projects in social governance practice, focusing on the reform of the administrative system. In order to break the back of the tough task, it took the approach of streamlining administration and delegating power to the lower levels, combining power delegation with effective regulation and optimizing relevant service items. It took the lead to nurture and supervise the integration of administrative services and law enforcement, with a governance-oriented model targeting the community-level governance innovation. A package of reform measures were formulated to solve the deep-seated and long-standing issues which were difficult to be addressed in social governance, especially those issues involving the institutional mechanism and the management of staff members and properties. In the course of reform, Jiangsu province has gained some positive experience, which makes good reference to the reform of government administrative system relating to social governance.

Key words: social governance, administrative system, integrated innovation, Jiangsu province