Therefore, in achieving good national governance, it is important to achieve popular participation in the process of public governance. This is because participation plays three important roles in the whole chain of governance.
First, participation in governance is a fundamental right of citizens. The principle of popular sovereignty guarantees that all public power is ultimately derived from the people and its exercise from the people’s authority. Therefore, the people have the right to participate in the application of public power and to supervise its operation [[16]], which is the founding principle of all modern states.
Secondly, participation in governance can effectively reflect the interests of the subjects and objects of governance and achieve the optimal outcome of governance as far as possible. The ideal governance is to achieve the improvement of the interests of various subjects and objects in governance rather than satisfying one party by harming the other, which is also known as the Pareto principle in economics. Of course, Pareto optimality is often unattainable in reality, which requires balancing and compensation of interests, which has also been made the Hicks criterion. Governance itself is thus a process of interaction and redistribution of interests and compensation between interested parties. In this process, the government cannot simply redistribute and compensate for this interest by taking it for granted. Otherwise, in the event that one thing harms the interests of one part and another harms the interests of another part, the government will soon harm the interests of the majority of individuals in society all over again. This is the worst kind of governance.
Third, participation in governance can provide adequate information, people, resources and knowledge for governance. The important difference between governance and rule is that governance itself should be pluralistic rather than monolithic, and its need to maximize the public interest. And participation itself is a process of mobilizing the whole society to participate in governance. Through various forms of participation, society continuously imports the best individuals into the government, while securing resources for governance through tax provision, donations, and collection. Likewise, through broad participation, sufficient practical information about the functioning of society and scientific knowledge will be continuously available for use in decision-making.
Fourth, participation can effectively promote oversight of and trust in government. The process of participation is not only the process of pooling resources and information, but also the process of realizing citizen oversight of the government [[17]]. The process of citizen oversight of the government is also a process of continuous improvement in the effectiveness of government operations and increased trust in the government. The improved trust, in turn, contributes to the effectiveness of government in all areas of governance and in turn mobilizes greater participation and support.
How to further promote participation is another huge project. The central task of the entire modern political system is to promote participation. In brief, it is fourfold: first, to build democracy, which includes both voting democracy, which focuses on the selection of entrusted subjects for the exercise of public power, and consultative democracy, which effectively influences participation, which focuses on the decision-making and functioning of specific matters. The second is to strengthen the rule of law, which is also a guarantee of participation, including the strengthening of consultation with citizens in the legislative, law enforcement and judicial sectors, and the provision of channels for complaints and safeguards of interests. The third is to strengthen the transparency of the government itself, through active disclosure, to achieve citizen understanding of the internal operations of the government, to help improve governance and operational improvements, and openness naturally includes the disclosure of information and data, and ultimately to achieve transparent government construction. Fourth, to strengthen the science of governance, which means always adhering to scientific principles and scientific assessments in major decisions. This is, in effect, to ensure that governance decisions are in line with objective laws and practical facts through the participation of knowledge professional groups in governance.
IV. Trust-authority-participation and democracy-rule-of-law-science
In terms of the relationship between the three, trust-authority-participation actually affects and interacts with each other. Trust can effectively enhance the authority of government, as authority is the dynamic continuation of trust, while trust is the static condensation of authority. If the public lacks trust in government, it is unlikely to be willing to participate actively in government unless it has a direct interest in doing so. This is the underlying cause of the general crisis of contemporary Western democracy.
From the perspective of authority, government authority can effectively increase citizens’ trust in the government, which will ultimately increase its status in the eyes of citizens and increase the degree of trust in the government through its own long-term reliable public behavior, and through its own capacity building and continuous improvement of governance. On the one hand, the authority of the government will increase the trust of citizens, making them willing to participate in the governance process, and even regard participation in governance as a kind of honor. Active feedback to the government and even the courage to monitor and criticize helps the government to improve governance. On the other hand, the authority of the government also promotes citizens’ obedience to its governance, and active obedience rather than passive resistance is also an effective form of participation.
From the perspective of participation, participation helps citizens form a solid community of interests and emotions with the government through monitoring and first-hand experience, helping to increase trust in the government and improve its performance. On the other hand, the more the public participates in government, the more the government is represented and the more the public good is served, and the better it fulfills its original purpose.
Therefore, a brief analysis of the relationship between the three elements shows that trust, authority and participation are in fact the core elements that are essential for effective governance in modern governments. The three are also a mutually reinforcing, spiraling process.
How to effectively build trust-authority-participation? In short, it is what is commonly referred to as a democracy-rule-of-law-science system. Most existing views agree that democracy-rule-of-law-science is an indispensable element for achieving effective governance and a core element for good governance [[18]-[19]]. What then is the relationship between democracy-rule-of-law-science and trust-authority-participation?
A further dissection reveals that the science of democracy and rule of law is at the level of the entire national macro system. Trust-authority-participation, on the other hand, is focused on the level of good government-building. The two are compatible and mutually supportive.
Democracy and the rule of law mainly embody the principles of popular sovereignty and lawful administration. Science, on the other hand, focuses on the truth, because the located evaluation of science comes from the testing of scientific theories by objective facts. Therefore, practice is the only criterion, indeed the scientific criterion, for testing truth. Thus, democracy-rule-of-law-science actually together form the basis for effective governance. However, when democracy-rule-of-law-science becomes the basis of everything that constitutes contemporary governance and indeed social life, it takes on a generalized character of its own, and this generalization actually weakens it. Therefore, we need to return to the starting point and the central perspective of governance, which is that effective national governance, while dependent on democracy-rule-of-law-science, ultimately comes down to the functioning of a good government. There is no such thing as good government and governance as long as there is the so-called democracy-rule-of-law-science principle. Otherwise, governance would not be so complex, nor would it be unsatisfactory in most countries, as is the case in the contemporary world. This means that government needs to be built both with the support of a grand system and with a more precise effort. This precise effort lies in how to increase the core qualities of trust-authority-participation that governments themselves possess. Therefore, it can be said that for the construction of trust-authority-participation, it is always necessary to build the democracy-rule-of-law-science system, and likewise, in turn, the construction of democracy-rule-of-law-science should focus on enhancing the core elements of trust-authority-participation of the government. The former is the substantive effectiveness of the latter measurement and core focus, while the latter is the institutional support and protection of the former.
Similarly democracy-rule-of-law-science also effectively supports trust-authority-participation in the actual construction, democracy safeguards trust and participation, fair rule of law safeguards trust and authority of the government, while legislation is also a process of participation, and science safeguards trust and authority of the government by helping the government to make the right decisions, while the participation of scientists in decision making and administration is also an effective political participation. In other words, democracy-rule-of-law-science is also a basic institutional support and guarantee for trust-authority-participation.
Finally, in the core relationship of trust-authority-participation, it is important to always keep a close eye on the trust element of government, because, of the three, trust actually has a more crucial determining role for the latter two. The construction of trust in government is not a one-time process, but one that is gradually formed and established over the course of long-term governance. On the basis of trust, authority and participation will be formed as a matter of course, on the contrary, the lack of trust, governance whether in the process or in the outcome, are bound to be full of suspicion, suspicion, opposition and confrontation, neither help the government itself to better achieve the goals of governance, nor help to achieve the happiness of the people’s good life [[20]]. Trust building, therefore, should always be the core of the core of government building.
V. CONCLUSION
This paper argues that the key to good national governance necessarily depends on a good government building, because governance is a real public practice. And good government construction must necessarily address the construction of the elements of trust-authority-participation of the government itself. Constantly increasing citizens’ trust in the government, constantly increasing the government’s own authority, constantly increasing public participation in national governance, and ultimately enhancing the construction of the government itself through this effective cycle of interaction. Good national governance is achieved through the construction of good government. In this process, the construction of democracy-rule of law-science should also focus on this, with trust-authority-participation as the core effort direction and substantive evaluation of each system construction. And among them, trust building should always be the top priority of government building.
Source: Study Forum, 2020, No. 10.
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