In the 2023 evaluation report of China's rule of law government organized by the Government Research Institute of the Rule of Law of China University of Political Science and Law, Xiamen performed outstandingly. (Photo courtesy of People's Vision)
The ranking of Zibo, the "Internet celebrity city", has advanced again, this time related to the construction of a rule of law government.
On April 21, 2024, the Blue Book of Rule of Law Government: Evaluation Report on China's Rule of Law Government (2023) was released, and among 100 cities, Zibo ranked 12th in terms of comprehensive score, an increase of 12 places compared to 2022, and ranked first in the public satisfaction survey.
The evaluation project, initiated by the Government Research Institute for the Rule of Law at the China University of Political Science and Law, has been carried out for more than ten years. The assessment targets for 2023 are 100 cities, including 4 municipalities directly under the central government, 27 provincial capitals, 4 special economic zone cities, 18 larger cities approved by the State Council, and 47 cities selected according to population size and geographical distribution. The evaluation system consists of 11 first-level indicators, 34 second-level indicators and 71 third-level indicators, with a total of 1,000 points.
In the 2023 assessment, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Beijing, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Ningbo, Xiamen, Suzhou, Wuxi and other cities performed prominently.
"The construction of rule of law governments across the country has been steadily improved, and some cities have formed experiences that can be replicated and promoted. Ma Huaide, the host of the Blue Book project team and president of China University of Political Science and Law, said, "But there are also shortcomings in administrative law enforcement, law-based business environment, and restraint and supervision of administrative power." ”
The gap between the East and the West has widened
On the whole, the construction of a rule of law government has made progress compared with 2022. "Among the 11 first-level indicators, 8 first-level indicators have achieved growth compared to the previous year, while 97 cities have a score rate of more than 60%. Zhao Peng, a member of the project team and dean of the Government Research Institute of the Rule of Law of China University of Political Science and Law, said.
The imbalance and inadequacy of the construction of rule of law governments in various localities are still old problems. Among the top 10 cities, their overall scoring rate ranged from 78.97% to 83.56%, with a maximum score difference of 4.59%. However, in terms of the first-level indicators, there is a significant gap between cities, for example, Nanjing and Suzhou are only 3 places apart, but in terms of "legal protection for optimizing the business environment", Suzhou is nearly 20 points lower than Nanjing.
The assessment results show that the level of rule of law government construction in the eastern region is still higher than that in the central and western regions. Among the top 10 cities, the east accounts for 9 seats. Among the top 30 cities, only Chengdu, Sichuan and Chongqing in the western region made the selection.
Specifically, in the first-level indicators, the top cities are mainly concentrated in the eastern coastal areas. In the first-level indicator of "digital rule of law government", the highest scoring rate and the lowest scoring rate in 2023 are 92%, and the cities with higher scoring rates are Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Ningbo, Guangzhou, Dongguan, Beijing, Zhuhai, Xiamen and Qingdao. The research group believes that there is still a certain gap between the level of digital government construction in the central and western regions and the eastern coastal areas.
One striking phenomenon is that 20 of the 27 provincial capitals failed to make it into the top 30. Anhui Province is not in the top 30 in the provincial capital, Hefei, but in the western part of the province, Lu'an. Fujian Province was selected as a sub-provincial city of Xiamen, not the provincial capital Fuzhou. In addition, cities such as Guiyang in Guizhou, Xi'an in Shaanxi, Taiyuan in Shanxi, and Shenyang in Liaoning are not listed.
The problem of uneven development also exists at all levels of government.
Zhao Peng said that the 2023 assessment report shows that once it penetrates the city-level units and reaches the district, county, street and township levels, the score of the evaluation index will not be too high, and the deeper the penetration, the more obvious the score difference.
In 2023, they observed that in the process of promoting the sinking of administrative law enforcement forces, local governments are concerned about the weak ability of grassroots administrative according to law, and have begun to gradually solve it, "such as training grassroots law enforcement personnel, and higher-level business departments to strengthen guidance on grassroots law enforcement activities."
Local administrative law enforcement score "three drops and one rise"
At the same time, the report points out that the level of local law enforcement has deepened.
The total score of the "administrative law enforcement" indicator is 130 points, which is the first-level indicator with the highest proportion in the assessment. However, compared with 2022, 100 cities showed "three drops and one rise" in the score of administrative law enforcement.
The average score of the 100 cities was 63.42%, down 9.92% from 2022. Compared to 2022, the highest and lowest scores in 2023 decreased by 5.18% and 17.41%, respectively, while the difference between the two widened by 12.23% compared to 2022.
This shows that the gap between the level of administrative law enforcement in various places has widened, and at the same time, some cities are not motivated to build a rule of law government and need to be strengthened urgently. Zhang Li, a member of the project team and a professor at the Government Research Institute of the Rule of Law of China University of Political Science and Law, said.
The project team members also found that some places abused the compulsory procedures, such as using the method of "demolition instead of expropriation" when expropriating land, and forced the demolition of illegal buildings or even affecting some legal buildings, so as to achieve the purpose of quickly advancing the expropriation.
The report shows that in the compulsory demolition cases of administrative compulsion, the winning rate of the administrative organs is only 13.12%, of which 39.26% of the cases do have illegal buildings, but due to the low legal literacy of administrative law enforcement personnel, the administrative acts made are flawed, making the administrative organs lose the administrative lawsuits.
For example, the rejection rate of non-litigation enforcement applications in a city in northwest China is as high as 44.70%, involving various reasons such as unqualified subjects, procedural violations, and incorrect use of administrative acts. Zhang Li said.
In this assessment, the score rate also decreased in the "rule of law guarantee for optimizing the business environment".
The indicator has a total score of 90 points, and the average score rate of the 100 cities evaluated is 60.87%, which is a decrease compared to around 74% in 2022.
Cheng Xiezhong, a member of the project team and a professor at the Law School of China University of Political Science and Law, explained: "First, it was found that some local governments were illegal and untrustworthy in the performance of contracts, and second, in recent years, the relevant departments have increased their law enforcement efforts to eliminate and restrict competition by abusing administrative power, and some illegal cases have been announced, and many cities have been deducted points. ”
Specifically, the report mentions that in disputes over the performance of administrative and civil contracts signed between local governments and private individuals, the success rate of administrative organs is not high, and in many places there has been a phenomenon of breach of contract due to the change of government and the replacement of leading cadres.
Administrative contract cases are mainly concentrated in the fields of land administration, housing and urban-rural construction, and comprehensive law enforcement. In civil contract disputes, when the administrative agency is the plaintiff, the winning rate of the administrative agency is as high as 85.01%, while when the administrative agency is the defendant, the winning rate is only 26.72%.
"Whether it is in an administrative agreement case or a civil contract signed between the government and a private entity, this kind of failure to perform the contract in accordance with the agreement or unilateral modification and termination of the government contract is still very common. Cheng Xiezhong said.
In addition, in terms of abuse of administrative power to eliminate or restrict competition, 12 of the 100 cities assessed can be searched on the official website of the State Administration for Market Regulation to have cases of abuse of administrative power to eliminate or restrict competition during the assessed time period, while only 35 cities have not been found to have differential or discriminatory treatment against different market entities in the field of government procurement.
In this regard, Cheng Xiezhong suggested that the construction of a fair competition guarantee mechanism should be continuously increased, "improve the fair competition review process, and even promote the establishment of such a centralized review mechanism to avoid the current self-censorship of administrative organs." ”
Southern Weekly reporter Chen Yifan
Editor-in-charge: Qian Haoping