Yang Guangbin
He is a researcher at the National Institute of Development and Strategy, Renmin University of Chinese
Dean and Professor of the School of International Relations
The tremendous achievements since the reform and opening up have been determined by many important practical experiences and the outstanding wisdom accumulated therefrom, including the balance between order and vitality. China was once in turmoil as a "fragmented society", and one of the great achievements of the Communist Revolution was to reorganize the country; However, due to the planned economy, people's communes, and other organizational forms, the society has lost its vitality, and it has no choice but to carry out the reform of "opening up to the outside world and invigorating the interior." Therefore, an important difference between the reform and opening up is the balance between order and vitality, which can be regarded as an indicator to measure the effectiveness of national governance.
This indicator can also be used to measure national governance from a comparative historical perspective. At present, the reason why many developing countries do not develop is that the state cannot be organized, there is no such thing as "national autonomy", the society is "scattered", organized crime is rampant, and what such a country lacks is order; And if an orderly society is overorganized, the whole country will lose its vitality and competitiveness, which is the story of the Soviet Union that is not so far away. Gorbachev rushed to the hospital in a hurry, and although the "open, transparent, and democratic" reforms awakened society, the vitality turned into disorder. Like many developing countries, the Soviet Union lost out on the balance of "order and dynamism."
In fact, looking at the relationship between "order and vitality" in the context of history, we can better extract valuable historical and political theories, which in turn will help countries prosper and prevent them from decaying.
The endowment of the organization: the degree of organization and the quality of the organizational form determine the rise and fall of the country
"Order and vitality" is a status quo or result state, as far as national governance is concerned, the carrier of order and vitality is undoubtedly the largest organization, and there are countless sub-organizations with different natures and different functions within the state organization, such as political organizations including political parties and governments, enterprise organizations of economic activities, scientific research and education institutions, and autonomous self-organizations. Therefore, order and vitality are actually the manifestations of the degree of organization of the state, and the degree of organization of the state comes from the degree of organization of the sub-organization, the certainty of the function of the sub-organization, and the state of interaction.
An important feature of modern society is the differentiation of its functions. If the functions of the sub-organizations with different attributes converge and the behavioral standards are single, the result of the operation of the organization will inevitably be manifested in the relationship between order and vitality, either in a disorderly state or in the decline of vitality. For example, after entering the feudal system, Europe took economic power and military power as the standard of behavior, and the result was a thousand years of chaos in a state of war; A community is based on cultural power, and one result may be that it is religiously "selfless", not to mention the driving force of social and economic development; If the acquisition of political power is the highest law of life, such as the "official standard" in Chinese history, it can only be "capitalism sprouts but does not develop". Therefore, the order and vitality of the country as the largest organization are of paramount importance to the diversity and differentiation of the functions of the sub-organizations.
To a certain extent, human history is deduced through the form of organization, and the degree of organization and the quality of the form of organization determine the rise and fall of the state. From a historical perspective, the "paradox of organization" is an important concept to explain the rise and fall of countries, and the paradox of organization embodies the advantages of organization, that is, the dividends of organization, and the disadvantages of organization, that is, the trap of organization, on the other hand.
Organizational dividend: the earlier it is organized, the more the country will be ahead; The more organized it is, the stronger the state
Why was China able to lead the world for a long time until the 16th century? An intuitive historical fact is that China was the first country to be organized, and it was also a country that organized the people of the vast land. The organized state is the greatest invention in human history, and its importance is far beyond the "four great inventions" of science and technology. The organized state determines the stability of society, and stability guarantees perseverance and constant production, which in turn promotes the strength of the state. Of course, such a state is built on the basis of an agrarian civilization.
After the 16th century, a new type of state organization began to emerge, that is, the birth of the commercial-military based nation-state in Europe. Three centuries later, two different forms of organized state met, and the organized state of agricultural civilization defeated the organized state of commercial civilization. However, the organizational principles of democratic centralism were organized to a greater extent than commercial civilization, and as a result, New China created a "Chinese-modern" state in a very short period of time, and China once again entered the center of the world stage.
The great history of the rise and fall of this country tells us that organization is a sign of the progress of human civilization, and the earlier it is organized, the more advanced the country will be; The higher the degree of organization, the more competitive the country will be, and the stronger the country will be. I call this history of early organization and strong organization the "organizational dividend". The two-hundred-year world history of the 19th and 20th centuries, that is, the history of modernization, is actually a history of competition between major powers for prosperity and strength, as well as a competition of organizational intensity and organizational form.
Organizational traps: can occur in both centralized and decentralized governance structures
Humanity has gone all the way through organization, and some countries have the "organized dividend" as a high-quality asset. However, the law of "path dependence", which cannot be avoided in the process of institutional change, may turn high-quality assets into non-performing assets, and fall from "organizational dividends" to "organizational traps".
The path dependence law of institutional change determines that the organizational dividend may evolve into an organizational trap, which may occur in both centralized and decentralized governance structures. In the United States, where there is a separation of powers and checks and balances, decentralization is its "organizational dividend", but decentralization unexpectedly strengthens the power of interest groups without limits, and they even create a sky-high amount of "GDP". United States' GDP in 2022 is $25.4 trillion, of which medical expenses account for 19.7% and legal fees account for 15.7%. The huge amount of medical expenses has not increased the average life expectancy of United States, and the huge legal fees just show that the so-called "rule of law" has become a profit-making tool for the legal profession. These astronomical figures reflect the degree of organization and power of interest groups, which are maintained by dense laws that are incomprehensible to the outside world, and the power of the state is divided among these powerful interest groups, forming a de facto "veto regime" that makes it difficult for the state to formulate the public policies that the people need. In this way, the autonomy of the state is dealt a serious blow, and the powerful interest groups called "society" will use their organizational advantages to further consolidate their dominant position. Decentralization was originally the "organizational dividend" of the foundation of the country, but the path dependence strengthened the power of interest groups as a symbol of decentralization, and the country and the people fell into the "organizational trap" and could not extricate themselves.
In contrast, centralized governance structures are more prone to the "organization trap" because organization itself implies centralization. This process is done through policy. As the environment changes, almost all organizations have the urge to use policy tools to expand their territory and expand their power. Over time, the network of organizations organized by policy instruments has become denser. The basis of any organization is the atomized individual, and the denser the organized network, the more limited the individual's space for thinking and behavior, until it is in a state of stagnation. Historically, the founding dynasty always practiced the Huang Lao philosophy of "letting the people be free", but after a few decades, the norms became more and more intensive, the cost of the system became higher and higher, the number of mediocre people increased, there was a financial crisis, and finally the regime was affected. In this regard, Gu Yanwu, a thinker in the late Ming Dynasty, pointed out long ago that the rules and regulations were too dense, which would make officials "ignore the general situation and be cautious about the small law", "the laws and regulations are becoming more and more complicated, the rules are becoming more and more dense, the prohibition and restraint are immovable, and people's wisdom and concerns cannot come out of the rope." Therefore, the talent is also sluggish. "Poor government, lazy government, and lazy government are the inevitable result of the "organizational trap". In the state of "organizational trap", officials lose their agency, they are only responsible for laws and policies, and laws and policies do not automatically function, and the whole society and the state are thus in a state of "idling" stagnation.
Create an institutional environment that balances "order and vitality" and get rid of the "paradox of organization"
The history of mankind is the history of organizational evolution, and organization has brought progress and strength to human beings, and human beings enjoy this "organizational dividend". However, at the same time, the law of path dependence will strengthen the degree of organization of various organizations, the organizational network will become more and more dense, and the institutional cost of state operation will become increasingly high, which will also greatly limit the initiative of individuals as the original foundation of organizations, and human beings will enter the state of "organizational trap". The "organizational trap" leads to the failure of national governance, and even endangers political security, leading to revolutionary change. After the transformation, the organization is endowed with new energy and vitality, and the "organizational dividend" shines; However, the passage of time has led human beings to consciously or unconsciously enter the "organizational trap". This seems to be a dead knot that humanity cannot get rid of - the "paradox of organization".
The discovery and pointing out of the "organizational paradox" is not hopelessness for humanity, but the grasp of historical initiative. At that time, Mao Zedong expounded the first way to avoid the rise and fall of dynasties in the "Cave Pair", that is, to make the people responsible and activate the people's initiative; In the new era, the Chinese Communist Party has discovered a second method, "self-revolution", which aims to regulate the behavior of officials. But how to activate the people's agency, especially to regulate officials and keep them active, requires "comprehensively deepening reforms" – the most important part of which is to remove all obstacles to the realization of Chinese-style modernization. If the first two approaches are aimed at people, i.e., mobilizing the people's sense of responsibility and restraining the behavior of officials, then the "comprehensive deepening of reform" is aimed at the organization itself, which is to optimize the organizational form and degree of organization.
We must have a deep understanding of what it means to modernize national governance. Governance modernization should create an institutional environment that balances "order and vitality", so that actors have the responsibility and motivation to devote themselves to the political ambition of governance. In the final analysis, national competitiveness depends on the organizational form and degree of organization of the country, and the balanced "order and vitality" is an important indicator to measure the superiority and disadvantage of the organizational form and the appropriateness of the organization.
Source: Beijing Daily
WeChat editor: Zhang Jingjing
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