Social organizations in western developed countries have a long history and mature experience in serving social governance, and have become an important pillar of western social governance system. Under the basic framework of small government and big society in the west, the power of the government is limited, and the government functions are also concentrated in the core areas such as security, diplomacy and economy. Many social management and public service functions are basically undertaken and completed by the market and society. As a non-governmental social autonomous organization, social organizations have unique advantages in undertaking social management and public services transferred by the government. Social organizations are entrusted or purchased by the government through function transfer, which plays a very important role in cultural education, welfare relief, old-age support, medical mutual assistance, community solidarity, environmental protection, disaster relief, crime prevention, and assistance to vulnerable groups. Because of its voluntariness, independence, non-profit, public welfare, equality and participation of community members, social organizations have unique advantages in grassroots social governance, which are easier to gain recognition and belonging, more nuanced and more in line with community culture and tradition. Therefore, it is more efficient for social organizations to undertake community management and public services, and it is also more conducive to social cohesion.
The high degree of autonomy and organization of social management is a remarkable feature of western countries. A large number of social organizations, such as various associations, non-governmental organizations, mutual aid organizations, churches, foundations, charities and so on. Grow up and be active in economic, cultural and social life, and play a role in meeting the diverse needs of social members and supervising the government and the market. For example, in American society, in the field of grass-roots community and micro-social management, the government has few other functions except social security and infrastructure construction, and the whole society has a high self-management ability. Almost all the management and services in residents' lives are undertaken by various social organizations in the market and grassroots communities. Therefore, people's social participation and public welfare actions are very active. Accordingly, the staff size of the grass-roots government in the United States is also very small, and the limited power and management of the government have actually developed the behavioral logic of people looking for and not looking for the government, managing themselves and helping each other solve life problems through social organizations.
This social governance system in western countries, in which the whole society mobilizes to participate in self-management and self-service, not only simplifies government functions, reduces the burden of government management, greatly improves management efficiency and promotes social harmony, but also enhances the subjective consciousness and responsibility of residents in western society and greatly reduces the cost of social management. The participation of social organizations in social governance has important reference significance for us to innovate the social management system, represents the direction and law of social governance development, and is also the direction of government function transformation and social governance system reform in China.
At present, China's economic and social development has reached a new stage. Supporting and giving full play to the role of social organizations in social governance embodies the trend and requirements of governance transition. At present, China's social governance model with the government as the core and economic development as the main goal generally has the problems of inefficient social management and insufficient services. The government's top-down management model can no longer meet the residents' needs for diversification, concretization and refinement of social governance, and must be reformed in subject, means and methods. At the same time, over the past 30 years of reform and opening up, our country has made great progress in the economic level, and residents' self-awareness and autonomy have also made great progress, which also provides conditions for us to vigorously develop social organizations.
The Central Committee of the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee made arrangements for the reform of the whole social governance system from the top design, which provided a new institutional space for the growth and function of social organizations. Combined with the realistic foundation of social development in China, we can develop and give play to the functions of social organizations from the following aspects:
First, change ideas and innovate social policy system. We should further emancipate our minds, change our concepts, and establish the concept of relying on multiple social subjects and social forces to manage social affairs. On this basis, we should strengthen policy innovation design to provide a relaxed institutional environment and legal guarantee for the growth and development of various social organizations. At the same time, through policy guidance and financial support, we will quickly cultivate a number of qualified and influential social organizations and social groups that can undertake some social service functions of the government, and cultivate them into a new main force of social governance.
Second, taking the market-oriented reform as an opportunity, we will accelerate the transformation of government functions at all levels, simplify administration and decentralize power, and gradually expand the scope and areas of government function transfer. The keynote of the reform set by the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee is to let the market play a decisive role. To this end, the government should clearly position itself, manage the market and society that it can't manage, and transfer the functions that the market mechanism can adjust and the society can manage itself, both by transferring functions and delegating power. When the new government carried out the reform, it was clearly proposed to reduce the number of administrative examination and approval items. Guided by improving efficiency and service quality, with the reduction of functions, some resource allocation and power are also transferred and decentralized to the market and social subjects. The market and social organizations undertake the functions of government transfer, and the government concentrates on top-level design and planning, macro-control policies, and strives to fulfill the government's regulatory functions.
Third, explore the contents and ways of government function transformation and social organization undertaking. Although we have defined the direction and task of the reform and established the goal of transferring functions to social organizations, under the existing national conditions, what to implement, how to implement it and to what extent are the key. Judging from the participation of western social organizations in social governance, mainly in the fields of micro-social management and public services, the government should actively delegate power to social organizations and hand over service, technology, sociality and certification to social organizations. By purchasing the services of social organizations and entrusting them to provide services, we can absorb the advantages of flexible structure and convenient service from social organizations, improve the quality and competitiveness of social services and reduce administrative costs.