Author: Wang Yang (School of Marxism, University of Science and Technology Beijing)
The Fourth and Fifth Plenary Sessions of the Nineteenth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China have emphasized the need to give play to the role of the third distribution and develop philanthropy. In August 2021, the tenth meeting of the Central Financial and Economic Commission further proposed to build a basic institutional arrangement for the coordination of primary distribution, redistribution and tertiary distribution. The expected function of the third distribution of the mainland is to make up for the lack of primary distribution and redistribution, and ultimately realize the common prosperity of the whole society. To effectively play the role of the third distribution, it is urgent to further create a good institutional environment, focus on building a mechanism for realizing the role of the third distribution, mobilize the strength of the whole society, improve the pattern of income and wealth distribution, and solidly promote common prosperity.
First of all, gradually improve the incentive mechanism for the third distribution. The third allocation is the allocation of resources led by social mechanisms, with social forces including enterprises, social organizations and individuals as the main body, with voluntariness and love as the subjective basis, which is the active transfer of social resources by various subjects, and the reallocation of individual existing social resources through charitable donations and volunteer services. The incentive mechanism of the third distribution is an important way for society to maintain its vitality, and it is a powerful driving force for members of society to actively and widely participate in the distribution of social wealth and promote distributive justice and common prosperity. On the one hand, improve the tax incentive mechanism. Further improve the tax system environment for the third distribution, earnestly implement preferential tax policies, and introduce preferential tax policies for public interest charitable organizations, enterprises, and members of society in all aspects such as finance, education, land, and charitable trusts; strengthen coordination between charitable policies and policies such as fiscal transfer payments, taxation, and social security, simplify the approval procedures for tax reductions and exemptions for charitable donations, explore multi-departmental coordination mechanisms, and mobilize more members of society to participate in the third distribution. On the other hand, explore multiple forms of honor incentives. The love and goodwill of the society is the premise of the third distribution, which mainly relies on "spiritual strength" to promote the balanced flow of social resources between different groups through the warmth and fraternity of human nature. National and local charitable commendation and reward systems should be further implemented, widespread attention should be paid to promoting the main force of public interest charity in the practice of common prosperity, explore the establishment of records and incentive mechanisms for charitable behavior, and encourage individuals, enterprises, and public interest charitable organizations that have made outstanding contributions in all links and stages of the third distribution through methods such as establishing models, commending advanced and awarding honors, giving them spiritual rewards and social preferential treatment for volunteer service, improving volunteers' sense of honor and gain, and guiding more members of society to enhance their sense of community, Voluntarily participate in the flow of wealth, pursue social fairness and justice, and jointly take the initiative to promote the realization of the goal of common prosperity.
Second, establish and improve the constraint mechanism for the third distribution. Achieving common prosperity depends to a large extent on the improvement of institutions. In the practice of promoting common prosperity, we should further improve the system related to the third distribution, give play to the positive function of the third distribution, and make it effectively make up for the shortcomings of primary distribution and redistribution in the process of promoting common prosperity. The constraint mechanism of the third distribution aims to create a normative order for the public welfare charitable behavior of the third distribution subject, promote the institutionalization of the subject's behavior and cooperation, and lay a normative foundation for the rational flow of social wealth and the realization of common prosperity. The constraint mechanism of the third distribution includes the subjectivity constraint mechanism, the interactive constraint mechanism and the normative constraint mechanism. First, the subjective constraint mechanism. Establish access rules for third distribution entities, create appropriate subject symbols and action ceremonies, so as to form value constraints on the legitimacy of third distribution entities; formulate social credit rules for third distribution entities oriented to distribution justice and self-discipline rules for the public interest charity industry; clarify the professional behavior norms for practitioners in the public interest charity industry, the standards for volunteer behavior, and the evaluation standards for the level of public interest charitable organizations. Second, the interactivity constraint mechanism. Provide a conflict resolution mechanism and a procedural interaction mechanism for the interaction and cooperation between the third distribution subjects, so as to form a third distribution inter-subject network with unified goals and orderly behavior. Explore mechanisms for the interaction of the third distribution subject program, such as the mechanism for mobilizing and raising charitable resources with the goal of common prosperity, the mechanism for the use and distribution of charitable assets, and the mechanism for the certification of public interest charitable entities, behaviors, and results, and establish rules for the common behavior of the network between the third distribution subjects. Third, normative constraint mechanisms. Improve mechanisms for constraining the use and distribution of charitable assets. Fully implement the "Charity Law of the People's Republic of China" and the "Measures for The Disclosure of Information by Charitable Organizations", changing from a supervision system for charitable organizations with import approval as the mainstay to a whole-process supervision system with information disclosure as the focus. Improve the assessment by the government or third-party institutions of the benefits of the use of charitable organizations or trustees and the rationality of distribution of charitable assets, standardize the distribution of charitable assets, and promote common prosperity.
Finally, the mobilization mechanism for the third distribution should be continuously strengthened. Common prosperity is the essential requirement of socialism, which is reflected in distribution and requires the common prosperity of all members of society through the joint efforts of all the people. Historical materialism holds that the masses of the people are the creators of history and the main force of historical development and social progress. To achieve common prosperity, we must respect the people's dominant position and rely on the extensive participation of members of society. The key to mobilizing members of society to actively participate in the third distribution is to form a set of social self-mobilization mechanisms, and widely mobilize the people to participate in the practice of promoting common prosperity through value guidance, organizational participation and technology empowerment. First, strengthen value guidance and promote the culture of charity. Vigorously promote the cultural tradition of charity, draw nutrition from the excellent traditional Chinese culture, and carry out creative transformation and innovative development of traditional charity culture, promote the modern transformation of charity culture, enhance the public's awareness of charity, and let the concept of third distribution and common prosperity be deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Second, cultivate public interest charitable organizations and smooth channels for organizational participation. Attention should be paid to organizational mobilization, cultivating social organizations, and creating a good internal and external environment for the development of public interest charitable organizations. Cultivate professional management and persuasion talents for public interest charitable organizations, enhance the internal governance and fundraising and management capabilities of public interest charitable organizations, increase the credibility of public interest charitable organizations, and make it possible for everyone to participate in public interest charities. Third, innovate mobilization methods and empower public participation through technology. Empower public welfare charity with digital technology, give full play to the advantages of the Internet and digital technology in expanding public participation, accurately capture and predict the needs of public welfare charity entities and beneficiaries, reduce the time, distance and venue cost of public participation in public welfare charity, and form a new situation in which everyone participates in public welfare charity. Encourage the third distribution entity to make full use of new technologies to disseminate truth, goodness and beauty in public welfare charity activities, realize the value of public welfare charity, create a social atmosphere in which everyone is good and everyone does good, and form a good public opinion environment for promoting common prosperity.
Source: China Social Science Network - China Social Science Daily