On Official - Popular Duality in Chinese' s Social Groups

Sun Bingyao

It is in scientific principle or in legal principle a social group is determined as a non - governmental organization . Studies of social groups and the law of contemporary China seem immature because of the slow growth of such groups but they are never in doubt about the popular nature of these groups. C1] It is in the popular sense that social groups are followed with interest by studies of what academic circles call "civil society" . Although the scholars concerned have endless wrangling and differences over the intention and extension of the implications of "civil society" , but it is generally recognised that "civil society" should embody social groups as non - governmental organizations because they constitute the organized autonomous activities of people and their area not only involves the political scope people are fond of but also includes economic, cultural and social life. (Z] However, the definition of the popular nature of social groups is within the limits of reason and is always accompanied by subjective value judgments and alternatives, being a far cry from the reality of contemporary China. Since the 1980s, in the course of reform social groups have had favorable soil and a climate for rapid growth. (3] Though they are restricted to the fixed popular nature of social group, at the same time they depend an the government in manifold forms and in many respects, show an apparent "semi - official/semi -popular" character.

In what form and to what degree do the people and the government mingle in social groups? Why do Chinese social groups fail to take the pure - popular road at present? What is the root of the "semi - official/semi - popular" character? Is its significance positive or passive? On these questions, we cannot arrive at judgments according to subjective taste, but instead we should awaken to them in accordance with the principle with which functionalism explains the significance and value of the existence of individual phenomenon from the overall connection and an the basis of China's actuate conditions of economy, society and culture. The study made by our research group with an anthropological approach in Xiaoshan City (a county - level city) , Zhejiang Province helps understand the above questions to a certain extent though our investigation ' s scope is limited and only touches upon county – level organizations. [41]

I. Non-governmental and Governmental Dual Impetus

The process of the formation of social groups is made by the two - dimensional forces of the people and the government who have their respective expectations of these organizations. Were the expectations to contradict with each other, that would not result in a common effort to establish social associations. But if their expectations had something in common, the two parties would go hand in hand to initiate the organizations. The impetus to set up social groups runs through the course of the growth of social associations, stands for the expectations of the organizers, the leaders and the members and is transformed into the goals and behavioral principles of the organizations, reflected in such respects as their organizational structure, power resource, economic resource and functional display.

The impetus from the people propels social groups forward from below. By law of the Constitution of the People's Republic of China , Chinese nationals enjoy freedom of association. L5J However under the old-type setup this freedom was checked. At that time there were almost no groups basically propelled by commonality except for a few mass organizations with a strong government - run nature. Changes in China after the death of Mao Zedong are also reflected in the forming of groups. The movement to liberalize thinking, the construction of a democratic and legal system as well as the construction of democratized economic and political activities have resulted in the germination and realization of the popular desire for social groups. This process is a leap after all though there is still something unsatisfactory with its speed. The sharp rise in social groups is precisely the product of this leap and supplies a feasible goal for progress. Of the 99 organizations at county level in Xiaoshan City, 93 emerged after 1979. The turn of the development of social groups tallies with rather than coincides by chance with that of the development of the political and economic situation, which manifests the inner connection between them. This connection lies in the fact that the political and economic environment produces an objective force which is then transformed into the subjective force of people's desire and freedom to associate. As a result, the rising of social groups is promoted from bottom to top.

Most of the organizations established from bottom to top are literature and art associations, sports groups and some science and technology groups among which "the Ning Luo Poets' Club" is the most typical. This club consists of the veteran staff and workers and the retired members of the cultural and educational departments and some enterprises in the city. Having felt that they had rare opportunity to learn, to publish and to exchange old - style poems , the above - mentioned personages formed friends hips through their poetry and they frequently gathered together to discuss poetry. Then, an idea to form an association followed. They thus chose to contact a cadre in the office of the city's Bureau of Culture and prepared to establish the club. Generally speaking, organizations formed from below take a certain interest as their link, finding themselves limited in scale and with minor influence. In the course of the establishment of the club, it is the people themselves that put forward the motion to contact members and to formulate regulations and government departments do not interfere. But they have to receive the support of "the competent departments" , win the approval of the competent departments and in this sense form a relationship with government departments (which will be discussed in detail later) . According to the present situation, the people's requirements to establish organizations have not so far met with any obstacle in these links. Even social groups whose members belong to different departments affairs, do not find it hard to get a government department to take charge of their affairs.

The government produces the impetus to push social groups forward from the top down. Leaders' idea an social groups exerts a great influence over their development. This hinges an two aspects : (1) to what degree do the estimates and evaluation of the role of social groups tally with the expectations of the Party and the government; (2) to what degree do social groups as a new - type organization tally with the Leaders' value idea? The Party and government always regard the Trade Unions, the Communist Youth League and women's organizations as important channels to keep in contact with the masses, giving them much support. The government attached vital importance to science and technology as early as the 1950s which promoted the setting up of mass organizations to popularize science. The discussion from the end of the 1970s that science and technology are the most important productive force has provided a more lax environment for the intelligentsia in public opinion, policy and the System of scientific and technical management, and mass academic groups have been encouraged as a means to bring into full play the initiative of scientific and technical staff. Besides, the reform of the economic system exerts a positive influence over the leaders' ideas and the appearance of trade groups was first advocated by the government as a kind of orientation of organizational reform. The designers of reform think that trade associations are a new form to replace the government' s function to exercise the management of enterprises after the government' s economic function weakens, and hope to throw the reins to the development of the trade association. (6) Some social groups characteristic of apparent group interests, consumers' associations and the association of self - employed workers for example, are also formed with the active participation of the government' s industrial and commercial administration departments that try to maintain market order and manage the new - born constituents of society.

The organizational course from the top down principally embodies the three forms : (1) The Party and government leaders, in accordance with the general tone or directions from the higher authorities, or influenced and encouraged by the development of social groups elsewhere, arrive at a positive judgment an the value of social groups and thus propose the establishment of social groups by giving talks, issuing documents or personally calling meetings. The cement association was Set up in this way. In 1986, the city leaders, seeing that it was difficult to exercise unified management of numerous local cement enterprises run by respective authorities in the city, districts or towns and townships, initiated the establishment of the cement association in order to plan the cement industry throughout the municipality. In the development of social groups, as is seem from above, the Leaders' intention plays a role that cannot be ignored. It is always transformed into the positive attitude of the government departments towards social groups, becoming the direct agent of government departments to sponsor and organize social groups and also furnishes the major basis for the organs of power to approve new associations. Even the sponsors of organizations to be established from the bottom up always have to take account of the leaders' intentions in the course of the in preliminary informal discussions. Those in conformity with the intentions of the higher authorities will be able to be confirmed by the government, will be unlikely to meet with great difficulties in applying for approval and their activities later an will easily win the support of the government, society and the work places in which their members are working. (2) The consumers' group is the most typical of the organizations sponsored by the competent government departments. The Industrial and Commercial Administrative Bureau is in charge of supervision of markets, organizes the consumers' associations, appoints cadres to take charge of it and bears its operating expenses. (3) To extend social groups from the top down is mainly the mission of organizational development assigned by the central government departments and carried out by the local authorities. Some national social groups extend their organizations down to lower levels through non - mandatory demonstration rather than through explicit stipulations. The existence of such organizations at higher levels for one thing enlightens the sponsors of the social organization and for the other manifests the social acknowledgement of this sort of organization which makes the new - organizations at lower levels carry out their work more easily.

Both popular impetus and governmental impetus are necessary for the development of social groups. Popular impetus forms the basis of the social group, but at the same time, it seems insufficient. The Xiaoshan City Organization of Self - employed Workers was originally formed by the self - employed workers themselves. The Leaders and all members of the organization were self - employed workers except for a secretary appointed by the industrial and commercial department to stand in for the government (who did not hold the post of a committee member and so had no right to vote) . The committee of individual workers - - as a pure popular organizations -- met with a Lot of difficulties while carrying out their work and it was very difficult for the leaders to have dialogue with the government departments or enterprises and institutions because they had no "official" capacities. Therefore, in 1986 when the committee of individual workers elected new Leaders at the expiration of the' former leader's term of office for three years, the committee at various levels submitted reports to the government one after another, requesting that the pure popular nature of the committee of individual workers be changed into a semi - official / semi - popular one and the committee be put under the leadership of the industrial and commercial bureau. This example shows that it is not enough to simply rely an popular will and strength in the development of social organizations, for in a system with the government as the centre, the new - born popular organizations do not enjoy the authority given through the division of work based an system and cannot stand for the dialogue mainstay accepted as an equal by the government or enterprises and institutions and so has to seek support from the government departments constrained by the pressure of the reality. In particular social groups with larger dimensions and stronger influence are always formed with the participation of the government. This shows that the government, with a dominant position in forming social groups, can resort to its administrative powers to call together and form the organization an a larger scale, beyond capacity the popular organization. While China is lacking in tradition and experience of popular activities, the participation of the government seems more important. But this is not to say that the government can domineer over the popular factor. In fact, the government participates in the forming of the social group usually on the basis of popular need. The popular foundation of establishing the consumers' group by the industrial and commercial administrative department rests with consumers' requirement for protecting their rights and interests. Popular demand is at any time the basis for the social group to survive. However, when the demand is present but power is not strong enough to form a social group, the government's participation plays a role of promotion. On the other hand, the government' s will cannot work unilaterally. Whatever will the government shows, those organizations which lack a popular basis - - even if established and with the powerful support from the government - -will find it very hard to work effectively and for a long time.

II. The Official-Popular Connection

an Organizational Layer

No matter whether social groups have legal status or not , they all exercise external interaction with other social organizations to varying degrees. But recently formed social groups in China, whose external relations of this kind are not only represented in activity levels but also in organizational relationship, establish contact with the government in the form of leadership first. This relationship is affirmed by government decrees and becomes the legal prerequisite for the establishment and registration of the social group. (7~ The Party and government organizations, enterprises and institutions owned by the whole people, as well as government - run social organizations, can serve as the competent departments, which forms the style of official - popular combination specially enjoyed by the Chinese social groups.

The competent department is an ambiguous notion with great elasticity either in law or in practice. In the administrative section of organizational system, there are explicit stipulations of the relationship between departments and that between the higher levels and the lower levels, and of the division of their authorities and responsibilities, which forms the division of labor and administrative sections. (g) The competent department possesses in form the sense of contact with the administrative section system that is the expansion of the section system with the government at the core of the social group. But this kind of extension remains only in form, and does not in content define the rights and obligatory relationship between the social group and the competent department. This relationship is completely dependant an the actual conditions the social group faces and the definition given by the social group's leaders and the competent department. It may be a very strong connection similar to the organizational relations between administrative sections, whereby the competent department bears much responsibility for the social group, almost taking the social group under it as one of its own working departments. The consumers' association, for example, has such a close tie with the competent department: the industrial and commercial administrative bureau appoints full - time cadres to and provides funds and offices for the social group that holds itself responsible to the former. But social groups of this kind are few while most groups have only a loose connection with the competent department especially those whose members are from co-related departments having much stronger independence from and very weak ties with the competent department. Some competent departments are only nominal. Although these departments according to the law have the right to intervene in the activities of social groups, still they usually do not participate in the activities of social groups an their own initiative. They participate passively unless and until the social group needs to win support from the competent department if it meets with some difficulties.

The relationship between the competent department and the social group has dual implications. On the one hand, it is one form in which the social group wins the support of the government. Particularly when the government controls more economic and social resources, fixed relations with the government established in the form of leadership seem to be more important. Therefore, the majority of social groups do not strive to free themselves from the competent departments that are sometimes compared to "mothers - in - law an the husbands' side" because of their ever much Intervention ; instead , they intentionally establish a closer relation with the competent departments so as to get more support . On the other hand , the competent department is also a means through which the government exercises control over the social group. In 1990, before the departments of civil affairs carried out registration and management of social groups, the competent department was the only channel through which the government controlled the social association. The participation of the departments of civil affairs constitutes a new form of controlling social groups according to the law. Since the department of civil affairs may become more authoritative because it has the authority to ban some social groups, it is likely to come to be the major social approach through which to control groups in the future. But when the law is still imperfect and the department of civil affairs still lacks administrative experiences, it cannot replace the rote of the competent department. In the Jong run, thanks to its special influence over the social group in such resource advantages as funds, office conditions and professional authority, the competent department is very likely to be used by the government, which will form the pattern of dual management of the social group by the department of civil affairs and competent department.

The organizational connection of the government and the social group is also reflected in the leadership of social groups. The leaders of the competent department or of the unit that has the relation with the activities of the social group always act as the president , vice - president or the secretary general , vive - secretary general of the social association. According to incomplete figures, 736 leaders of the 93 social groups in Xianshan City are the leaders of the departments concerned, accounting for the majority of the leaders of social associations. These persons become the leaders of social groups first by taking advantage of their "official" capacities. Only a few posts of leadership are left for those popular representative figures without an "official" Background, who either have a certain capacity (i. e. , become the leaders of the groups of individual workers an behalf of the individual operators; enter into a certain type of professional organization an behalf of the special production households) , or possess a certain special skill or knowledge (i. e. , those with the skill or knowledge of art and literature, of sports or science and technology become leaders of their organizations) , but they only account for the minority. The posts of the top leaders of social groups are fundamentally held concurrently by figures with an "official" background, especially the post of secretary - general is fundamentally held concurrently by cadres of the competent department.

The social group leaders with an "official" background play dual roles. On the one hand, they, as members of the social group, have the same rights and obligations as other members do. They themselves may cherish the interest in organizational activities, usually support the benefits of the social groups and work hard for its development. On the other hand, they, as the cadres of the Party and the government and the leaders of enterprises or institutions and in the capacity of state functionaries, always introduce their own cadre value concept and behavioral style into social groups. In particular leaders from the competent department, possibly even bring the goal of the government department into the social group, thus regarding the group as one of its own work departments.

The duality of the role played by leaders of the social group makes the nature of the group's authority very ambiguous and uncertain. The choice of the two roles is completely up to the leaders. At present, the two roles are unified when the goal of the social group tallies with that of the government. But the two are not always in complete conformity, thus causing conflicts their roles to a certain degree, while the leaders will have to choose roles. It roughly follows that when the role of the leaders of the social group does not present an obstacle to their "official" role, they prefer to choose the former. Otherwise, the social group leaders will not hesitate to choose the latter and become the agents of the government to control and manage the group , thus weakening the popular character of the social association's leading body.

However, group members do not discriminate against the "official" role in the leading body. The regulations of social group stipulate democratic procedures to elect leaders by the members' will which can be completely expressed through voting at the members' conference. If members generally disagree that "official" personnel should assume the posts of their leaders, their will will be realized through the agency of the democratic mechanism of this kind. But in fact social group members universally welcome the "official" personnel into the leading body and a lot of groups even make every attempt to invite some municipal leaders or the leaders of other government departments concerned exclusive of the competent department to join the leading body of their organizations. When the social group chooses its leaders, it depends an the solution to such practical problems as the position and role of the organization other than popularity as the value judgment. It is usually thought of as an important means by which to enhance the influence of the social groupand make its work convenient to admit "official" personnel as members of the group, and this realistic consideration is more important than value selection.

III. The Overlapping of Service Function and

Administrative Function in Social Groups

At present , social group have six main functions to perform: (1) to promote its members' development in such respects as arousing their interests, enhancing their abilities and seeking out opportunities; (2) to protect members' individual and collective rights and interests; (3 ) to participate in political activities an behalf of the group ; (4) to participate in economic activities ; (5) to participate in social activities for the public good; (6) to cooperate with the government departments concerned to accomplish a certain administrative function. These functions generally fall into two categories according to needs: the service function to work for the members' interests an the basis of their requirements; the administration function to subordinate the groupto state interests according to the government's requirements. The administration function of the social group is one of the various external functions added to the social group by the government after the introduction of the reform movement so as to strengthen the social ability of control and administration in the new situation. Therefore, it can be regarded as the extension of the government's power to manage the society from the top down as well as the supplement to the government's administration function.

There are two ways to combine the government' s demand and social demands. First, the mechanical combination. Some activities of the social groups purely serve the government while some purely serve its members. These activities to meet the requirements from different respects are carried out by a certain social group, which constitutes the combination of different functions. Second, the organic combination. That is, certain work of the social group reflects both the demands of the government and that of the social group members. These two demands are organically combined and benefit each other. For example, trade appraisals among the trade group organizations and the participation of political groups in the discussion of policy - making both play the dual role of service and management.

The organic combination is first of all one of goals, i. e. , a certain activity of the social group embodies a common goal shared by the government and the group. This kind of combination of goals originates from the homogeneity of the basic interests of the government and the society. There is also a combination of approaches, i. e. , taking a certain activity of the social group as a common approach by which to realize their respective goals. For example, the social group reports something to the government, from the perspective of the group, its purpose is to express its members' Demands and to seek benefits for them; from the perspective of the government, it encourages this practice so as to know what is going an at the grass - roots level and this strengthen the management of the social group. Although the goals of the two sides are different, they can take the same action to meet each other's requirements.

On the whole, the administration function of the social group is more important than that its service function. This is because it will be difficult for functions that do not benefit the social group become basic functions and the social group will be short of the intrinsic impetus in performing them. Therefore, from the perspective of function analysis, it may be said that the popular nature of the social groups is stronger than its "official" nature, though they mostly present themselves as semi - official/semi - popular organizations.

In the concept of the social group, the service function is the fundamental organizational function, which is not only decided by the popular nature of the social group but also by the actual needs in the existence and development of the group. This fact is easily understood by some organizations consisting of volunteers. They came to be formed an the basis of the common demand of their members from the very beginning. The desire of social groups of this type to expand their service function originates from the demand in organizational survival and development and from their members' immediate or vital interests. In the matter of those social groups with legal or natural members, although their members' cohesiveness is without question, yet their reputation, position and influence need enhancing. If the social group image before the government mainly hinges an its administration function, then its social image mainly hinges an its service function. Serving its members helps expand the social reputation of the group and aggrandize its social position. This will draw the attention of the government.

The strengthening of the impulse action of the social group' s service function will undoubtedly have a reservoir of an intrinsic impetus with which the group becomes civilian-run in the future. But at present, the impulse of the social group to expand its service function is restrained by the real conditions of society. The insufficiency of the social group's economic resources hinders its service function. The limitation of the role the social group plays is to a certain extent due to the deficiency of funds, so it is hard for these social groups to conduct activities. The shortage of social resources also affects the group' s service function. The insufficiency of the group' s authority makes its function less effective in protecting members' interests. But more importantly the social group is restrained by the inadequate division of the social organization system's functions. To a great extent the all - encompassing social functions of the government and the units at all levels under the old organizational system still remains. The solution of many problems concerning individual interests principally depends an such an organizational system. So it is difficult for the new - born social groups to grow and develop their functions in this organizational environment for the division of labor based an function. The restriction of function is most strikingly expressed in enterprises, because they cannot completely free themselves from dependence an the government and the solution of their problems - - if any - - mainly depends an the government departments in charge of them.

The social function of administration seems to be at odds with the nature of the social group, but in fact social groups mostly take an active attitude towards exercising the function of administration. Fundamentally speaking, the social group and the government share a certain identity in goals, because the social group is not opposite to the government and does not counterpose to the government an behalf of some in-

On Official - Popular Duality in China ' s Social Associations 115

dependent social organizations. Instead, China' s social groups preserve considerable uniformity with the government in their ideas, behavior and goals. The intersection between the social groups and the government an the organizational layer makes the goal set by the social groups naturally reflect the requirement of the government. Not only do leaders of the social groups hope to get support from their members they also hope to win the confirmation of the Party and government leaders. In the organizational relationship , because of the social association' s dependence an government departments, the social group has to lay much stress an bringing its function of administration into play. Because the government' s investigation and evaluation of the Performance of the social group' s leaders directly affect their positions of leadership, they conscientiously avoid conflict with the government departments in exercising the function of administration and even to transform the intentions of the government departments into goals of their own. From the perspective of organizational tactics, the social group' s taking an the function of administration helps cement ties with the Party and government leaders and improve its image in the eyes of the Party and government leaders. This is because the existence and development of the social group depends to a great extent an the value orientation and assessment by the Party and government leaders as well as an the general and specific policies of the Party and government. Taking an a certain function of administration also helps give full to the various functions of the social group by taking advantage of the authority of the Party and government departments as well as extending the influence of the social group and enhancing its social reputation.

Why then, does the government get assistance from the social group in executing the functions of social administration? First, the government needs to use the social group as the medium or connecting bridge because the channels connecting it and social groups are not enough or fail to be unclogged after the reform. The connecting role the social group plays is mainly expressed in the lateral links between the government and the new economic sectors as well as those which do not connect. Second, in some respects, the social group can play a part that the government and other organizations cannot play. The social group has a popular nature and shares with its members interests and the intimacy of minds and sentiments. So it can achieve good results while carrying out policies and ideological education with the issues of its members in mind. The government, therefore, makes full use of the educational function the social group possesses to implement policies and attains the goal of strengthening social control and administration.

IV. Social Transformation and Official-Popular Duality

The above analysis shows that the "semi - official and semi - popular" nature of the social group , determined by the present economic , political and social conditions , has an positive effect an either the social group' s development or the government. But this does not mean that the "semi - official/semi - popular" nature remains unchanged and has already become the normal state of the integration of the social group and its social background. On the contrary, the arrangement of the official- popular combination is in a state of dynamic change. The reason for the change lies in the fact that China's present economic and political systems are in transition and no fixed Pattern has been formed. So it is impossible for social group based an these circumstances to form a fixed pattern and it has to change as basic conditions change.

With the deepening of reform, the number of social groups will undoubtedly increase considerably. This is a quantitative change and its official - popular structure embodies a qualitative development. In view of the circumstances in the past ten years and more , social groups had already shown a tendency towards populism . According to factors such as the reasons for the formation of social group, the choice and capacities of their major leaders and their sources of funds, we divide social groups into three categories: government - run, semi - government - run and civilian - run. Before 1978 , Xiaoshan City only had four government - run associations. From 1979 to 1983 , one government - run and 17 semi - government - run groups were newly established , and from 1984 to 1991 there appeared one government - run group , 52 semi - government - run and 24 civilian - run associations. The process of populism tallies with the economic and social changes caused by the deepening of the reform. But the process is still limited so far.

The economic condition is the prerequisite for the popularization of the social group. At present, the social group's funds have the following four main sources: (1) the government finance mainly responsible for the government - run social groups such as the Communist Youth League, the women's federation and the federation of literary and art circles; (2) the financial aid provided by government departments mainly for some semi - government - run groups by appropriating funds, reimbursing their special expenses and subsidizing , etc. ; (3) the income of the membership dues (except the trade union with sufficient funds by collecting them from the enterprises based an the proportion of the total sum of the workers and office staff's wages in accordance with government decrees, all other social groups' income of membership dues is very limited and some groups' individual membership dues, merely symbolical , only account for a very small proportion of their funds) ; (4) raising funds by pooling resources from society and developing paid services. The social group' s dependence an finance and the financing of government departments inevitably comes to be the obstacle to its dragging into a popular association. Apart from the organizations of industrialists, social groups find it rather difficult to pool funds by collecting membership dues, because it is impossible for individuals with low income to pay huge membership dues as so to "buy" the limited services provided by the social group. The way of raising funds through society is no more than an irregular means of supplement. The principal method of the social group to maintain sufficient funds is to engage in business activities, to enter into the tertiary industry, to develop paid services and even to run economic entities. In fact, the stipulation in the state decree that "social groups are not allowed to engage in business activities for the purpose of making profits" has already been broken by the social group' s impulse to seek economic interests. Not only did the departments of civil affairs - - as the managers of social groups - - confirm this fact, but also they actively encouraged social groups to engage in economic activities under the national great upsurge in developing the tertiary industry in 1992. This policy shows that the purpose of the departments of civil affairs to exercise administration over social groups is to enliven them rather than to check them through too rigorous control and that to this end they even venture to lift the limitation of decrees currently in effect. Generally speaking, the societal group's method of engaging in economic activities is to work in the light of its features and to bring into play its members' professional advantages. Therefore, the societal groups can develop their own economic entities under conditions inferior to those of the enterprises. The growth of the market economy will provide more opportunities for enabling societal groups to engage in economic activities. Nevertheless, opportunities are uneven between regions. Societal groups in the economically developed regions will have more opportunities to engage in economic activities to obtain sufficient funds, while those in the economically backward regions will acquire funds slowly. In this sense, the process of the popularization of societal groups in the developed regions is possible.

The change of the political system is another important condition for the popularization of the societal group. As far as this point is concerned, people always opine that the democracy of the representative system and lobby politics are breeding popular - interest organizations or groups. The deeper the political system places the origin of power among its citizens, the more possibility people will have to control power resources by themselves through group and to strengthen their own political influence, thus promoting the growth of popular - interest groups. However the combination of China's societal groups and political system takes an opposite model of this, On the one hand, Chinese citizens are short of approaches to freely associate and participate in politics; an the other hand, the political system frequently entrusts approaches to some interest groups to participate in politics. Therefore, the government - run trade unions, youth organizations and women' s organizations have more opportunities to participate in politics, while civil organizations have few chances. We can thus arrive at a conclusion that the existing political system not only will not promote the popularization of the interest groups but an the contrary, will encourage societal groups to come closer to the government .

Actually, the administrative system has a more direct bearing an the official -popular dual structure of the societal group than the political system. The societal group responds sensitively to the distribution of administrative power. Under the System of centralization of power, because the government controls power in every respect, the enterprises and individuals short of space for free action have insufficient authority to organize social and economic activities an their own in the form of autonomy, and societal groups' service function will certainly be restrained and as a result it has to perform more administration functions. To conduct effective societal mutual aid and to enhance its social influence, the societal group does not principally rely an the authority given by its members but must rely an the government's authority. The non - power centralization in the course of reform has provided good conditions for the societal groups as popular organizations, which is the main cause of the groups becoming popularized to a certain degree in the past ten years and more. With the deepening of reform, the government will delegate powers to the lower levels still further and the space for civilian activities be expanded further. In this sense, the process of popularization of societal groups will be accelerated.

From the perspective of cultural tradition, there is an argument that China is short of independent legal entity for historical reasons and therefore autonomous civil organizations will not keep developing. It is true that China historically lacked independent legal entity because collectivism was stressed but the scope of collectivism was very narrow and only within the limit of families, friends and communities. Therefore, historically the few societal groups such as trade organizations very much of a popular nature. Since the People' s Republic of China was founded , the scope of collectivism has been expanded to the state layer and collective interests and individuals' obedience to the state have been emphasized so that the independent legal entity is further blurred. People's behavioral style formed under the old system does hamper their participation in association. People have a dim sense of rights and interests, are short of preoccupation with autonomy and depend an their work units and the government. This will check the popularity of the social group. However, legal entity is the product of a system whose change will create the new - type legal entity. There is no doubt that people's concept of rights and interests and their will to pursue them have been stronger since the reform was introduced , which is precisely one important reason that societal groups emerge and also predicts the potential for popularizing societal groups in the future.

The combination of the official and popular essential factors embodied in societal groups is to a great extent a product of the economic, political and cultural Backgrounds in which groups survive. China's 30 - year - long time of government - run mass organizations and the highly centralized power system cannot be separated and nor can the popular nature of societal groups in Western countries and the history of their civil society and democratic politics. It is a universal fact that there are these kinds of historical conditions at the stages of national development which determine the nature of social group and its cooperative role between the government and the people, just as the distinction made by Williamson between the two types of relations between the societal group and the state. He believes that government - led collectivism from the top down is universally present in the countries that are at the early stage of capitalization and in the later - modernized countries where the government plays the leading role in the relationship with the societal group, while the mature and developed capitalist countries show collectivism in popular relations from bottom to top. (1°J Lying between the two, the official - popular dual structure of the present Chinese societal groups not only represents the control from the top down but also a certain degree of popular autonomy, which is specified by the economic, political, cultural and social conditions in the process of China' s modernization.

NOTES

(1) The Ministry of Civil Affairs of the People's Republic of China, A Handbook to the Management of Social Associations, Beijing, the People's Press, 1991.

(2) Gordon White: "Prospects for Civil Society in China" , in the Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, January 1993, No. 29.

(3) According to the statistics compiled by the departments of civil affairs, there were 1,400 national social associations, 19,601 provincial and 16,000 county-level social associations, China Daily , English ed. , May 7, 1992.

(4) As for the materials and analysis of this investigation, see Wang Ying & others: The Middle Stratum of the Society, Beijing, China Developing Publishing House, 1993.

(5] The Commission an Legal Affairs under the Standing Committee of the National People' s Congress: "Collection of Laws of the People's Republic of China" , Beijing, the People's Press, 1985, p13.

(6) Xue Muqiao: Establish and Develop Autonomous Trade Organizations, the People' s Daily, October 10 , 1988 .

(7) "The Regulations an the Registration and Administration of Social Associations" promulgated by the State Council of the People's Republic of China stipulates: "To apply for the establishment of a social group, people should, with the approval after examination by the competent departments, apply to the registration management Organ for registration. " the People's Daily, October 6, 1989.

(8) As to M. Webers classic exposition and argumentation an the administrative section system, see " Organize the Pick of the Government Staff" (Chinese ed. ), Beijing, People's University of China Publishing House, 1990.

(9) "The Regulations an the Registration and Administration of Social Associations" , the People' s Daily , October 26, 1989.

(10) See Yamaguti Sadameru: Political Systems (Chinese ed. ) , Beijing, the Economic Daily Press, 1991, p191.

Sun Bingyao: researcher of the Sociology Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.