Recently, the food safety incident of the Experimental School of the Seventh Middle School in Chengdu, Sichuan, has become a major social news in China, and has caused a huge response in all levels of society.But this is really not the news, but this happens again.I don't know how many similar events have happened over the years. Food, drugs, kindergartens, hospitals, etc. will occur similar security issues at any time.Every time, society is restless, but after calming down, people can only wait for the next time, what is uncertain is just not knowing where the next time will happen and who will happen.
Once such an incident happened, the first thing people thought of were government supervision issues, and they believed that this was caused by the poor government supervision.Indeed, regulatory issues have also been emphasized by the government over the years.In fact, governments at all levels do not want to see such things, because every time, relevant government departments will face dual pressure from society and superiors.If such a problem is not handled well, it will even have a very negative impact on the government's governance legitimacy.
Therefore, whenever such incidents occur, the relevant departments will vowed to ensure the supervision issues and find out those who bear the responsibility. Many people have been punished accordingly.(Especially the field of drug supervision).However, from the experience of these years, no matter what kind of supervision, it seems pale and weak.
Supervision is a supervision after something goes wrong. It is relatively late to supervise when something goes out.Popularly speaking, supervision is similar to fire saving, and it is natural to rescue when the fire is on fire.But once the fire is getting angry, the loss has already been caused.Therefore, it is necessary to find a deeper reason to explore why the supervision is invalid and whether it can control or even prevent such things from happening.Because no one wants to see such a thing, if you can find the source to prevent it, it will undoubtedly meet the interests of all parties.
What causes the existing supervision to be invalid?Supervision is a problem in any country, and no country can declare a perfect regulatory system.However, the origin of China's regulatory issues is particularly special, that is, there is a phenomenon that can be called institutional isolation, that is, regulators and ordinary people are not in the same system, or they are on the surface of the same institutional system, but they haveOne system isolated.The author once called this phenomenon the castle phenomenon, that is, China still has too many privileges systems, which are separated from the regulators and the people.
For a long time, there have been privileges systems in the fields of medical care, education, housing, food, etc., so that people say that except that air is shared by officials and people, others are exclusively for officials.In addition to officials, rich people can also imitate the government to create their own special system because of their money.Obviously, both state -owned enterprises and large private enterprises have their own special systems.In this way, or abandoned by or being abandoned by the special system is just ordinary people.
In terms of medical care, China's prevalence has always been a traditional type of medical system.Almost leaders and officials at all levels have their own eunuchs.Senior government systems consume too much medical resources, and retired officials enjoy excessive medical and over -care, forming a medical system for the poor to help the privilege.Under the Taiyi system, any medical reform that is conducive to the public becomes impossible. The reason is simple. The health and life of officials at all levels are related to the Taiyi.The rational medical reform plan is not to whisper to those who have in charge.
In terms of education, from kindergarten to university, officials at all levels have their own channels and methods, which can properly arrange and solve the employment problems of children.Even if the power cannot be solved, you can use money to solve it. In many occasions, entrepreneurs and businessmen take the initiative to help solve, which is especially manifested in studying abroad.The low salary of Chinese officials is known to passers -by, but see who is not the best and most expensive school for children?The corruption in it is self -evident.
The government and the people are not trusting each other
Real estate has always plagued Chinese society, whether it is the government or ordinary people.Real estate is a problem with the government and a problem of social, but it is definitely not a government official.Because society is dissatisfied with real estate (sky -high housing), real estate has become a government issue.Officials' real estate is still under the planned economic system, that is, government officials at all levels can still enjoy official housing according to the level.Although there have been changes in these years, at best, they are only semi -commodity, which means that officials can get non -market -priced housing.
All of this shows that although government officials also enjoy the benefits brought by the market economy like the people, they do not need to bear any risks brought by the market economy.In other words, they are not related to the interests of the market economy, but those who are not related.Since the interests are not related, how do you want them to supervise the market?Imagine that if all officials, like ordinary people, must buy food, drugs, housing, education, etc. in the market, their regulatory motivation mechanism must be different from the present.If they are like ordinary people, they may become victims in the market, and they have a strong motivation to regulate the market.
After understanding this question, it is also easier to answer the question of how to avoid the current supervision and how to improve the regulatory system, that is, the abolition of privileges, demolition of isolation officials and ordinary people.In this way, it is important to improve the market economy environment and the long -term governance of the ruling party.
For the market economy, part of society has entered the market, but the other part has not entered the market. This cannot be said to be a complete market economy.Furthermore, these people who did not enter the market have huge energy to manipulate the market, which hinders the development of the market.More importantly, as mentioned above, these people do not need to bear the risk of the market while obtaining the huge benefits from the market.The people come to make society become more and more unfair and more differentiated.
Politically, the significance of disassembling walls is more far -reaching, that is, to solve the problem of ruling party and the people's tendency.The disconnection of the ruling party and the people is a common problem, not only China exists.After the founding of the country in 1949, there was a so -called new class problem.At that time, after the Soviet Union's Eastern European Communist Party was in power, it formed an unbreakable bureaucratic vested interest group and disconnected from ordinary people.This newly formed bureaucratic vested interest group is called the new class by scholars there, and is distinguished from the previous capital -based vested interest groups.
This new class is the source of dissatisfaction of the people.In order to prevent this phenomenon in China, Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution, opposed bureaucracy, and tried to solve this problem with a periodic cultural revolution method (that is, one so -called seven or eight years).However, the nature of the Cultural Revolution changed immediately, and evolved into the power of power between leaders. Whether the ruling party itself or the overall society, the Cultural Revolution was a great disaster.However, how to make the ruling party is part of the people rather than the people of the people, and to this day, it is still a big problem that has not been solved.Although the purpose of the ruling party for the people has not changed, it has not been implemented on the specific system.
Over the years, the ruling party has also had a lot of thoughts on it, hoping to solve this problem in various ways, including fixed -point poverty alleviation (assistance), cadres to goVisits, inspections, short -term residence in local area, etc.However, from the perspective of actual effects, these are difficult to play an effective role, because these eventually they are all reduced to formalism. If they do it, the cadres do not believe themselves, and the people are even more unbelievable.Over the years, the Taxita trap, which Chinese society has been discussing, makes sense, that is, the grim situation where the government and the people do not trust each other.
Remove the castle to abolish privileges
An effective way is to take the initiative to remove the castle, abolish privileges, and truly put their officials and ordinary people on the same system.If officials and people in the fields of medical care, education, housing, food, etc. are shared, the situation will be completely changed.It is very simple to have a responsibility for interests and no interest. This is very simple.If officials become stakeholders in the market economy, they will try to regulate the market.
Even in developed capitalist countries in the West, equality in front of the market is an important principle of ensuring social fairness, at least in theory.In these countries, the market's principles are often prevailing, and the market decides whether everything is reasonable.Whether it is an official or the capital itself, it is the rationality of the interests they enjoy.But it is clear that the status of rich and powerful people and those with no money in the market economy is different.Although both are facing the market, the ability to prevent market evil is different.This also causes the inequality that West seemed to the West today.
However, Western countries use several methods to prevent the height of society and the instability of society.First, to dilute political power and strengthen market forces, so that most people are attributed to the market rather than politics even if they have resentment.Second, to ensure the openness of the market, people can climb at the top of the market by trying to improve their ability to avoid the evil of the market.Third, democracy restricts power and capital.Because officials were elected by ordinary people, the election associated with the officials and the people.The dissatisfaction of the people to the market can be relieved to a certain extent.The legitimacy of officials comes from votes. For the votes, the government must supervise the market to prevent the market from excessive evils to society.
More importantly, since the emergence of democracy, it has greatly promoted the progress of the welfare system.The generation of the welfare system is not greatly related to the democratic system. The original welfare system was only the stability of capital spending money to buy (society).But the improvement of the welfare system is the credit of the democratic system.Although some Western countries have moved to excessive benefits today, it makes the welfare system difficult to develop, from a social perspective, the welfare system ensures the basic survival and development rights of the bottom of society and prevent social excessive differentiation.
Singapore has created an effective mode that can eliminate the city walls between officials and the people outside the West.Although Singapore officials have high salaries, all the needs of officials must be obtained from the market, and they have no special system.Officials can use money to get better services (medical, housing, education, etc.) from the market, but because there is no special system, officials will do their best to supervise the market.Singapore does not have a multi -party system like the West. Although there are many opposition parties, political parties have never occurred.However, for so many years, Singapore has never had the problem of food and drug safety that has been frequently occurred in the West in the early days, nor has the safety of food and drugs like contemporary China.The logic behind the Singapore model is worth thinking about.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China has achieved great achievements in anti -corruption.To this day, the eight regulations are not only welcome to ordinary people, but also officials themselves.However, anti -corruption is within the party and government system. Many of the systems and mechanisms introduced so far are to prevent and reduce corruption in the system.Although the construction of the anti -corruption system is very important and has a positive impact on society outside the system, it has not solved the more fundamental problems above, that is, the disconnection of the ruling government and society.Compared with other ruling parties, the Communist Party of China has worked a lot in this regard, such as building a mass party, all corners of the society, and adhere to the mass line of the masses.
However, whether it is the experience of the Soviet Union Eastern Europe or the experience of the CCP itself, as long as there are various privileges systems, the ruling party and society will inevitably have a systematic isolation.Once this isolation becomes unbreakable, the opposition inside and outside the system will become inevitable, let alone not trust each other.From the perspective of the long -term interests of the ruling party, it is imperative to abolish the isolation system, but whether this will become a new battlefield for the construction of the ruling party and the ruling party's anti -corruption.
(The author is the director of the National University of Singapore and the Institute of East Asia)
The article only represents personal point of view
