Theoretical Analysis on the Necessity of Administrative Supervision
To discuss administrative supervision, we must answer why we need to supervise the government? Since corruption is the non-public use of public power, supervision is the supervision of the use of public power. Power itself does not corrupt, and power cannot operate without certain institutions and personnel. People's values, ideological attitudes, and moral qualities will all affect the use of power. The government holds public power, and if it wants to supervise it, it must have certain systems and institutional guarantees. The following will make a theoretical analysis of the necessity of administrative supervision from the aspects of power, human nature, government interests and socialist democracy.
(1) Power and administrative supervision. Power is a universal influence among human beings, that is, the ability to influence people's will and behavior. Power is corrosive, and this corrosiveness is rooted in the following characteristics of power.
First, the coercion of power. People with power can use the resources at their disposal, such as politics, economy, culture, etc., to issue orders to those in need of resources. The two form a command-obedience relationship, which is a manifestation of a mandatory relationship.
Second, the instrumental nature of power. The existence of power is mainly to satisfy certain human interests and needs. Such interests and needs can be material or spiritual, and can be reasonable or unreasonable. People pursue, grasp and use power not for the sake of power, but as a tool to meet their own needs, maintain and enhance their own interests or realize their own value. That is to say, to a large extent, power is a means, not an end.
Third, the commodity nature of power. That is to say, power has certain attributes of commodities, such as value, use value, ability to be exchanged, etc. In modern society, most people are not born with power, but acquire it through acquired struggle. People have to pay a certain, even huge, price in the process of obtaining power, which makes power valuable. The use value of power refers to the usefulness of power to people. It can bring benefits to people. It has both value and use value, which makes power can be exchanged.
Fourth, the inherent contradiction of public power. In addition to the general characteristics of the above-mentioned powers, public power also has inherent contradictions. Because public power comes from society, and the people of society are the real masters and owners of public power; however, public power is detached from society and has strong independence, and it can be mastered and used on behalf of society. The institutions and personnel are highly subjective. The separation of ownership and use rights makes it possible for institutions and personnel who actually hold power to harm or deprive society of benefits for the benefit of the group or themselves.
It is precisely because power is coercive, instrumental and commercial that it can bring status, honor and various benefits to those in power during its use, which makes people chase and compete for it. At the same time, power is essentially the power to dominate others, and the will to power is rooted in the desire to rule and control others. This determines that it has the tendency to expand indefinitely. Once it exceeds a certain limit, it will infringe on other rights. Power has an instinctive and spontaneous corrosive effect on those in power, leading to damage to the interests of the public and the interests of others. British historian Acton has a famous saying: Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. This sentence profoundly reveals the inner connection between power and corruption. From the nature of things, to prevent the abuse of power, power must be restrained by power. However, power is only a necessary condition for corruption but not a sufficient condition. Whether power leads to corruption cannot be separated from the analysis of the people who carry the power.
(2) Human nature and administrative supervision. The factor that promotes the alienation of power is none other than the selfish desires of the subjects of power. If the holders and exercisers of public power do not have any self-interested motives or tendencies, there will be no need for administrative supervision. In fact, human nature is not always good. Madison once said: “If men were angels, there would be no need for any government. If angels ruled over men, there would be no need for any external or internal control over government.
"It can be said that humans are half angels and half devils. Regarding the hypothesis of human nature, there are two completely different views, namely "human nature is inherently evil" or "economic man", "human nature is inherently good" or "moral man (social man)". )". There are two potential tendencies in human nature, namely self-interest tendency and altruistic tendency. We call such people "benefit people". "Benefit people" care about their own interests as well as the interests of others. When oneself When the interests of others are consistent with the interests of others, he will become a unity of self-interest and altruism; when the interests of others are inconsistent with his own interests, he will weigh the pros and cons and make rational choices based on realistic conditions. In the case of changes in public power, when designing the system and taking into account the assumptions of human nature, we should pay equal attention to "moral man" and "economic man": the realization of "moral man" should be regarded as a gradual, long-term The process is based on the assumption of "economic man".
(3) Government interests and administrative supervision. As the core subject of social public management, does the government have its own interests, that is, government interests? Is it always pursuing the interests of the public? The school of public choice believes that the government is also an "economic man", has self-interest, and will also pursue the maximization of its own interests. Once the government forms its own internal bureaucratic group, there will be self-interest, which may lead to government failure. Many scholars in our country also recognize the existence of government interests. "The government is also an 'economic man' and has its own pursuit of interests, but our country's social system and social nature require government interests and public welfare. **Interests remain in the same direction. "But the government and government officials, who are the embodiment of the country, are specific, and they play multiple roles in society, so they are bound to represent and pursue multiple interests.
The existence of government interests is of great significance to the public*
(1) If the direction of government interests is consistent with the direction of public interests, then the pursuit of government interests and the pursuit of public interests will be consistent. will promote each other;
(2) If the government's interests and the interests of the public are not completely consistent, the government may give up the best option to safeguard and enhance the interests of the public due to considerations of its own interests. , and making a choice that is more beneficial to the government will partially detract from the interests of the public, but it is still a sub-optimal choice when the overall optimal cannot be realized, and "moderate and reasonable government interests can be transformed into It is a driving force for economic and social development and has positive effects. ”
(3) If the government’s interests break through the necessary constraints and boundaries and proceed in a direction that is contrary to the interests of the public, this will inevitably fundamentally harm the interests of the public. This is mainly reflected in the For the self-expansion and expansion of government agencies, the expansion of local interests and departmental interests, a large number of government "rent-setting" and "rent-seeking" behaviors, and official corruption, etc.
Because of the objective existence of government interests, Moreover, the government may abuse public power in the process of pursuing its own interests, which may cause government actions to deviate from the direction of public interests. Therefore, from this perspective, it is also very necessary to supervise the government.
(4) Socialist democracy and administrative supervision. Under the socialist system, all power of the country belongs to the people. In order to prevent the abuse of power, the people should be mobilized to supervise the exercise of power. The consultation system is an effective form of administrative supervision; various mass supervision and public opinion supervision also play a great role in constraining government power.
3. Theoretical measures to strengthen administrative supervision
Preventing and suppressing corruption in public power is a systematic project that can be thought of from three perspectives: material, spiritual and institutional. From a material perspective, as public officials of national administrative agencies, they are first of all. People need to live even a decent life. If they can't even get a basic salary for a long time and can't even maintain a basic living standard, how can they be expected to restrain their "economic man" desires and remain clean? The successful experience of "high salary to support integrity" in Hong Kong, China and some Western countries is based on my country's actual conditions, relatively improving the welfare benefits of government officials, implementing moderate salary to support integrity, and raising the risk cost of corruption. This is the material basis for opposing power corruption. .
From a spiritual perspective, the human spiritual world is relatively antagonistic. The world outlook and outlook on life, sense of justice and responsibility, legal consciousness and moral concepts are not illusory. They are attached to the public. *In people in power, the thoughts of government officials are integrated into them, and the immunity of public officials is cultivated. This is the inner strength to oppose the corruption of power. It is difficult for people to imagine that a person who has no or weak sense of justice, lacks conscience or low moral sense, has no sense of shame or disregards honor can maintain the moral bottom line of the exercise of public power. Theoretically speaking, the above-mentioned material perspective should belong to the category of administrative incentives, and the spiritual perspective should belong to the category of administrative ethics. We will not discuss it in depth here.
Discuss it from an institutional perspective. Regarding the system, Deng Xiaoping made two famous assertions. One is that "education is important, but the legal system is more reliable." The other is that "a bad system can prevent good people from doing good things, and a good system can prevent bad people from doing bad things." These two assertions profoundly reveal the effectiveness of the system in anti-corruption. Preventing and eliminating power corruption through systems has become a wise choice for governments of all countries. When discussing how to prevent and suppress corruption in public power at the institutional level, its essence can be expressed as: how to effectively restrict and supervise public administrative power through institutional arrangements. The solution to this problem is a long-lasting effort of human political society. The various current administrative supervision systems are the institutional strength condensed by the long-term historical practice of mankind.
Investigations conducted by various organizations and institutions in recent years have shown that corruption has become one of the most serious and concerning social problems facing our country. There are many reasons for this problem. Certain flaws in human nature and the corrosiveness of power are possible causes of corruption. Imperfect systems and institutions make corruption a reality, while the lack and weakness of supervision make corruption worse. potential. As far as the current anti-corruption situation in our country is concerned, the most important thing is to strengthen supervision.