The First Series of Annual Research Reports on the 14th Five-Year Plan Officially Published
Completed upon the collaboration between the Center for Chinese Public Administration Research (CCPAR) and the School of Government (SOG) at Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU), the first series of annual research reports on the 14th Five-Year Plan, which includes People’s Needs for a Better Life and Social Policy Innovation (2021) and Digital Transformation of Public Governance (2021), has been officially published by Social Sciences Academic Press (China) to the public.
The compilation and publication of the annual research reports represent an important endeavor of the CCPAR, SYSU, a key research institute of humanities and social science in the university under the Ministry of Education, on doing scientific research in an organized way during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025). The two reports embody the ideas of “being new-era-oriented” and “pioneering the era” respectively. People’s Needs for a Better Life and Social Policy Innovation (2021) focuses on how to resolve the principal challenge facing Chinese society in a new era, while Digital Transformation of Public Governance (2021) focuses on how to lead global governance in the digital future.
The people’s expectation for a better life is what provides fundamental impetus to social policy innovation as well as what social policy innovation is ultimately aimed for. To better meet people’s needs for a better life and achieve common prosperity following the completion of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, the Chinese government should make constant efforts to promote social policy innovation and further establish a modern social policy system, which corresponds to the level of China’s economic development and the modernization of China’s system and capacity for governance. Based on the national annual questionnaire survey data analysis, People’s Needs for a Better Life and Social Policy Innovation (2021) discusses many important topics about social policy innovation, including poverty management and cognition, the needs for pension service, the “three-child” policy and related fertility support, the protection of the platform practitioners’ rights and interests, the strategy of rural revitalization and so on.
People’s Needs for a Better Life and Social Policy Innovation (2021)
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee and the State Council have attached great importance to the construction of digital government and digital transformation of governance. A series of important guidance documents have been issued successively for practices and reforms such as the ones of “Internet” and “streamlining administration and delegating power, improving regulation, and upgrading services” so as to promote the digital transformation and development of governance, and the modernization of system and capacity for governance. From the perspective of demand-oriented digital governance service innovation theoretically, Digital Transformation of Public Governance (2021) comprehensively reviews and summarizes the Chinese government’s practice in the fields such as government website construction, mobile government development, government hotline transformation, and intelligent government services integration through questionnaires surveys, and case studies. The report concludes the successful model and experience for digital governance development and transformation, discusses the existing shortcomings, and puts forward suggestions on future development direction and key areas of China’s digital governance transformation.
Digital Transformation of Public Governance (2021)
The two reports are included in the important research results of “Research on People’s Needs for a Better Life and Social Policy Innovation in the Era of Common Prosperity” and “Research on Digital Government Construction Against the Background of Common Prosperity: Digital Inclusion, Decision Paradigm and Implementation Path”, both of which are 2022 major projects of Key Research Institute of Humanities and Social Science in University under the Ministry of Education.
Annex: The Annual Research Reports’ Publication Notes
Publication Notes
Against the background of the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), the Center for Chinese Public Administration Research (CCPAR) and the School of Government (SOG) at Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU) have endeavored in research and decided to roll out two annual research reports: People’s Needs for a Better Life and Social Policy Innovation (2021) and Digital Transformation of Public Governance (2021). Based on continuous and nationwide surveys and data collection, these two reports will present to readers the evolution of public attitude and situation observed in the two important fields, followed by the analysis of its significance for governance reform and its implication for policies.
We choose the two themes based on our judgment of major issues in public governance laid in two timelines.
Firstly, the research on public governance should be new-era-oriented. Priority should be given to the research on the principal contradiction facing Chinese society in the new era between unbalanced and inadequate development and the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life. People’s Needs for a Better Life and Social Policy Innovation (2021) constantly pays attention to people’s livelihood needs in education, medical care, care for children and the elderly, employment, and other fields, including the differences and dynamic changes in public attitudes towards social welfare. By doing this, the report tries to comprehensively present the progress made by the Party and the government as well as the existing challenges in solving the principal contradiction in the new era. Constructive ideas are put forward in the report based on professional analysis of social policies.
Secondly, the research on public governance should support China to lead global governance in the future. In this regard, the new round of scientific and technological revolution, especially the development of digitalization and artificial intelligence, is reshaping, not only the government’s power and behavior but also the relationship between the object of government behavior and the government. Even the knowledge system of traditional governance has been subversively impacted. Digital Transformation of Public Governance (2021) focuses on issues such as the application of digital technology in public governance scenarios, the digital and intelligent transformation of public services, the innovation of government supervision in the digital era, the value exploration of big data and data governance, digital economy and the development of digital industry, the ethical risks in the digital era and prevention. The report will provide academic support for public governance in China to allow the country to become a leader in the digital civilization era.
We expect the publication of these two reports to partially demonstrate the practicality of public administration and political science in public governance. The planning of the reports is also closely related to the discipline construction advantages and aspirations of the CCPAR and the SOG, SYSU. After years of accumulation, our social policy research team has grown stronger and become remarkably influential in international academia with a sizable number of achievements in the research on China’s social construction. In recent years, we have made great efforts in strengthening academic research and social services in digital governance. As a result, a high-quality network of the government, industries, universities, and research institutes has been established, a comprehensive research layout has been formed, and remarkable progress has been made in the digital and intelligent transformation of government services and other fields.
We will promote these two reports as an ongoing undertaking. It is our original intention to provide support for basic research with reliable data and incubate high-quality decision-making consultation results based on research reports. Furthermore, it is also part of our plan to establish open databases in specific fields to provide academic sharing for our academic colleagues based on full accumulation.
Center for Chinese Public Administration Research, SYSU
School of Government, SYSU
Institute of State Governance, SYSU
June 2022
