'Benefiting the people' as the greatest achievement: Understanding China's governance logic

Editor's note: China has recently launched a Party-wide education campaign within the Communist Party of China (CPC), urging officials at all levels to better understand what constitutes good governance performance. CGTN has invited experts to analyze the underlying logic of China's governance approach. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.‬

At a time when global governance is in deep trouble, China's building path of governance validity that is different from Western electoral politics is showing its unique value in the East. 

China's recent Party-wide study and education activities have established "benefiting the people" as the greatest achievement, and the people's satisfaction is the fundamental yardstick for measuring the effectiveness of governance. This renewed emphasis on governance logic not only provides new ideas for dealing with the global "affordability crisis," but also contributes to China's solution to solve the widespread "governance deficit."

From votes to sense of gaining

Western democratic theory has long regarded periodic elections as the only source of political validity, while in recent years, this logic has been severely challenged. From Europe to North America, many people are witnessing party rotation in the midst of high inflation and soaring living costs, but it is difficult to see substantial improvement. The break between formal vote mandate and substantive governance performance constitutes a crisis of trust in contemporary Western politics.

China's governance practices offer an alternative perspective: governance justifiability stems not only from the authorization process but also from continuous performance feedback. When "the people are satisfied or not, happy or not, and agree or disagree" becomes the core indicator of official evaluation, officials and cadres must shift their focus from campaign promises to daily results, from rhetoric to results. This "people-centered" view of political performance is essentially a return to the essence of governance – the validity of the government must ultimately be based on the creation of real well-being for the people.

People's livelihood effectiveness in the 'affordability crisis'

The current "affordability crisis" facing the global economy is a direct test of the governance capabilities of countries. China has chosen to respond to this challenge with an attitude of "seeking truth from facts and working hard." From ensuring supply and price stability to giving priority to employment, from housing security to educational equity, governance resources are systematically directed to the areas of greatest concern to the people. This policy orientation does not stem from the pressure of the election cycle but from the internal drive of the performance evaluation system – the promotion of officials is directly linked to the actual effectiveness of improving people's livelihood.

This mechanism design has produced significant governance efficiency. When policies are idling in some Western countries due to partisan strife, local officials in China have a stronger incentive to solve specific problems because "hard work" rather than "slogans" determines their political future. This explains why Chinese society has been able to maintain high governance resilience under similar macroeconomic pressures, and people's sense of perceived gain forms the basis of social stability.

The Eastern response to the governance deficit

The "governance deficit" is a prominent disease of contemporary global governance: both international mechanisms are weak in responding to transnational challenges, and domestic governance in various countries is generally facing a decline in efficiency. China's view of political performance can be seen as a deep response to this dilemma.

Firstly, it redefines the meaning of development. GDP growth is no longer the only indicator; rather, "people's livelihood thermometers," such as employment quality, ecological environment, and equalization of public services, have been included in the core assessment. This change in the concept of development has made the governance goal return from abstract numbers to people's real needs.

Secondly, it builds an endogenous mechanism of "responsive government." By combining higher-level evaluation with grassroots public opinion surveys, a bottom-up and top-down policy feedback loop is formed. Although this mechanism is different from the horizontal accountability of multi-party competition, it achieves effective vertical accountability in specific political cultures.

More importantly, it provides an alternative path for non-Western societies to modernize governance. Not all countries are suitable for simply transplanting the Western model, and China's experience shows that the same can be achieved by reforming the performance evaluation system while maintaining political continuity.

Admittedly, any governance model faces its specific challenges. How to ensure the authenticity of the "satisfaction" evaluation, prevent new variants of formalism and balance short-term people's livelihood investment and long-term development needs are all topics that need to be continuously explored. However, it is undeniable that when many countries around the world have fallen into political polarization due to governance failures, China's concept of political performance with "benefiting the people" as the core has shown a governance wisdom that directly links governance performance with people's well-being.

This is not a simple denial of the Western model but an alternative answer to the universal proposition of "what constitutes good governance." Today, when the governance deficit has become a global challenge, this logic of emphasizing effectiveness and defining political performance by people's livelihood is worth pondering in countries seeking governance modernization. After all, the satisfaction of the people is the hardest political achievement, and a perceptible sense of gaining is the most solid foundation for governance justifiability.