Chapter 33 The Evolution of the Social Relief Administration System in the Republic of China
Social relief puts the first emphasis on social policy and social administration. After 38 years in the Republic of China, the social relief administrative system has undergone several alternate governments. Among them, the Beiyang government and the Nanjing National Government have existed for the longest time, and the social relief administrative system has had the greatest impact. We investigate The alternate transformation of the social relief administrative management system in the Republic of China can further understand the twists and turns or progress in the process of China's social management work from traditional to modern.
1. The administrative system of social relief during the period of the Beiyang government The predecessor of the Beiyang government was the Hubei military government and the Nanjing provisional government. On October 11, 1911, the second day of the Wuchang Uprising, the military government of Hubei was established. There were four ministries under the military government, and social relief work was also managed by the Internal Affairs Bureau under the Ministry of Political Affairs.Later, when the Bureau of Internal Affairs was changed to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry was responsible for charitable deeds and public welfare.The military government existed for a relatively short period of time, and some work had not yet begun, and it was replaced by the Nanjing Provisional Government.When the interim government was established, the central government set up the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the provinces set up the Department of Civil Affairs, and the Department of Civil Affairs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Health Bureau were also in charge of social relief affairs.
Among them, the Department of Civil Affairs is responsible for the management of pensions, immigration and charities; the Health Bureau is responsible for the prevention and treatment of infectious and endemic diseases.Due to the uncertain situation in various places, the responsibility for social relief is generally taken over by the governors.
After the establishment of the Beiyang government, in August 1912, the Ministry of the Interior promulgated the "Official System of the Ministry of the Interior" stipulating that the Chief of the Interior should manage relief, relief, charity and health affairs, and "supervise all government offices and local governors under his jurisdiction". The Department of Civil Affairs established by the Ministry of Internal Affairs is in charge of relief for the poor, disaster relief, workhouses for the poor, shelters for the blind, insane asylums, babysitters, charity, and immigration; the Department of Health is in charge of the prevention and treatment of infectious and endemic diseases , vaccination and vehicle and ship quarantine and other matters.It can be seen that the Department of Civil Affairs and the Department of Health of the Ministry of the Interior manage social relief work.There were 11 divisions in the Ministry of Internal Affairs at most, and then decreased. On December 22, 1912, the "General Rules for the Amendment of the Official System of Various Ministries" changed the Department of Civil Affairs into the Department of Civil Affairs, and merged the duties of the Department of Health into the Department of Police, which also took charge of matters related to social relief. On July 10, 1914, the "Amendment to the Official System of the Ministry of the Interior" was promulgated, which stipulated that "the Ministry of the Interior is directly under the President" and changed the powers originally assigned to the chief minister to the powers of the ministry.In this way, the actual power of the Minister of the Interior has been weakened a lot.The above changes indicated that Yuan Shikai's government began to attach importance to the governing function of social security agencies.
As for the subordinate institutions of the Civil Administration Department, the "Regulations of the Departments and Divisions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs" announced on July 29, 1914 stipulates that the Civil Administration Department has five departments, and the fourth department is in charge of relief and charity matters. In charge, by 1917, the fourth department was responsible for 16 items, namely, local disaster relief, local relief of money and food, approval of local donations, rewards for local donations, local grain export assessment, and local waste preparations. Gu, preparing for the livelihood of the Eight Banners, setting up relief and rewards for the Red Cross, Jingshi Pingtiao, Jingshi Dongfang adopting the poor to distribute cotton clothes and opening temporary porridge factories, babysitters and other charities, as well as managing vagrant training centers, Jiliang Institutes, The Bureau of Education, factories for the poor, and local charitable halls.The Minzhi Division can be said to have a lot of affairs, complicated tasks, and arduous tasks.
The local social relief administrative management organization is constantly changing with the change of the central management organization. In 1913, the Beiyang government promulgated a decree stipulating that the provincial administrative organ was called the Administrative Office, and its Internal Affairs Department was also in charge of social relief affairs. In 1914, in order to restore the imperial system, Yuan Shikai called the provincial administrative agency the Patrolling Envoy, which consisted of the Government Affairs Department and the Finance Department, and the Internal Affairs Department of the Government Affairs Department was also in charge of social relief work.After Yuan Shikai failed to proclaim himself emperor, the name of the institution was restored, and President Li Yuanhong changed the patrol envoy to the provincial governor system, and the government affairs department under the provincial governor's office was also in charge of social relief.
The administrative organs at the provincial level were managed by the internal affairs department under it, until 1924, when the Tao was abolished as a primary administrative agency.Correspondingly, the social relief work at the county level is also in charge of the internal affairs department.
The famine in the Republic of China was still serious. Due to the situation, the Beiyang government gradually paid attention to the important role of social relief agencies in social stability. In October 1920, the provinces of Zhi, Shandong, Henan, Shanxi, and Shaanxi were severely hit by drought. In addition to sending personnel to handle relief, the Beiyang government also organized the "International Unified Disaster Relief Association" to set up a relief office.The Relief Office was attached to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. According to the "Provisional Regulations of the Relief Office" published on May 23, 1923, the director of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was also the director, and the deputy director was also the director.The office is divided into five departments: general affairs, relief, work relief, relief, and transportation.In order to unify the affairs of relief services across the country, the authority and specifications of the relief office were improved. The "Regulations on the Organization of the Office of Supervision and Administration of Relief Services" and the "Articles of Association of the Attached Relief Committee" announced on October 17, 1924 stipulated that the department should be divided into general affairs, relief services, Check the three offices.The supervision is directly under the President, who is appointed by the President, and the meeting is assigned by the President.The Supervising Relief Office hosts the national official relief, and all additional customs revenue is at its disposal. All relief matters in disaster areas, the relief government offices must report to it at any time.The Beiyang government raised the status of relief agencies, reflecting the seriousness of the famine problem.
During the period of the Beiyang government, there were still some mass and international disaster relief organizations in China, mainly including the Red Cross Society of China, the International Unified Disaster Relief Federation, and the Huayang Charity Relief Association.These non-governmental organizations are supervised and managed by different government administrative departments.For example, the Red Cross is supervised by the Ministry of the Navy, the Ministry of War and the Ministry of the Interior, and most other groups are managed by the Ministry of the Interior.
It can be seen from the above that the social relief management system of the Beiyang government implements three levels of management: central, provincial (road), and county. In addition to permanent institutions, there are also non-established institutions that are responsible for disaster relief management.But from the perspective of institutional evolution, it was gradually improved following the relevant decrees of the Nanjing Provisional Government.The addition of disaster relief agencies shows that the Beiyang government pays more attention to social relief issues, but how it is implemented needs to be tested by practice and effect.
2. The social relief administrative system of the Nanjing National Government During the 22 years of the Nanjing National Government's existence, the social relief administrative system has gone through three stages and undergone three changes.
The first stage: 10 years before the outbreak of the all-out war of resistance.
After the establishment of the Nanjing National Government, appropriate changes were made to the social administrative organization of the former government. In April 1928, the Ministry of Internal Affairs was changed to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Until the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, the permanent agency of social relief was mainly the Ministry of the Interior.The Ministry of the Interior consists of the General Affairs Department, the Civil Affairs Department, the Police Department, the Lands Department, the Etiquette Department and the Statistics Department.The Secretary for Civil Affairs is in charge of disaster relief, poverty relief and other charitable matters.According to the "Regulations on the Departments of the Ministry of the Interior" promulgated by the Ministry of the Interior in June 1928, the Department of Civil Affairs has four departments, and the fourth department is in charge of social relief and other social welfare matters, including relief for the poor, relief for the disabled, old and weak, and disaster reporting. Apology and land tax review, local disaster investigation and relief, disaster prevention and famine preparation, charity organization assessment, charity rewards, local fundraising and relief review, and homeless education matters.It can be seen that the Department of Civil Affairs is in charge of complicated tasks, but its powers are limited. If a disaster strikes, the authority of the office makes it difficult to coordinate the overall situation and coordinate various social forces to relieve the disaster.
For example, in 1931, the Jianghuai River Basin was flooded, and several provinces were affected, and tens of millions of people became victims of the disaster. The relief affairs were multi-dimensional, and the national government had to transfer many disaster relief and other social relief affairs under the responsibilities of Section 4 to other agencies, or set up new departments. organization to manage.
The Relief Office, a temporary disaster relief agency established during the Beiyang government, was inherited by the National Government. The Relief Office was established in 1928, directly under the National Government, and was in charge of relief and charity matters in disaster areas.The status of the Relief Office is relatively high, and the director is concurrently held by the Minister of the Interior, and the deputy director is concurrently held by a member of the National Government.Under the Relief Office are the Relief Committee and the three departments of General Affairs, Investigation and Relief.
Before 1931, in order to relieve severe floods in some provinces, the national government established some temporary and regional disaster relief agencies.For example, the Zhilu Disaster Relief Committee was established in March 1928, and the Henan, Shaanxi and Gansu Disaster Relief Committees and Guangdong and Guangdong Disaster Relief Committees were established at the end of 1928.Because these disaster relief organizations are local organizations, it is difficult to coordinate national disaster relief matters.In order to solve the scattered and isolated situation, in March 1929, the Disaster Relief Committee was established under the Executive Yuan, thus integrating the local disaster relief agencies across the country into a unified national disaster relief organization, which was in charge of disaster relief.
In this way, the national government had two disaster relief agencies under its jurisdiction, with overlapping functions, duplication of agencies, and too many prevarications. In order to solve this problem, in January 1930, the two agencies merged to form a new agency—the Relief Committee.The Relief Committee is mainly responsible for the relief of victims caused by domestic natural disasters and refugees caused by civil wars.According to the "Regulations on the Organization of the Relief Committee", the Relief Committee has the ministers of internal affairs, foreign affairs, finance, transportation, railways, and industry as ex officio members. , editing publications, purchasing items, etc.; the Fundraising and Relief Section is responsible for the collection of relief goods, relief funds, transportation of relief goods, duty-free and free passport handling; the Audit Section reviews the cashier of relief funds and relief goods, etc.
The Relief Committee has lower-level counterparts in each province and city.According to the "Organizational Charter of the Relief Committee", all disaster-stricken provinces must set up provincial relief committees to handle local relief. The provincial relief committees are composed of provincial government members, provincial party committee members, and people's organization members appointed by the provincial government. There are general affairs group, relief group and audit group.Cities and counties may set up city and county branches for relief services.
After the catastrophic flood occurred in 1931, the national government set up a special flood relief committee directly under the national government, which was in charge of temporary relief, after-event remedial work and disaster prevention. Song Ziwen was the chairman, and Xu Shiying, Kong Xiangxi and others were members.The matters to be handled by the committee are in close contact with the Relief Committee of the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Industry under the Executive Yuan, and it is stipulated that all matters related to the flood relief committees, provinces, cities, and organizations can be handled directly by the committee through text messages .It can be seen that the Flood Relief Committee has great powers and a high status.
Judging from the above situation, the temporary social relief institutions have changed a lot, and the scope of the Fourth Section of the Department of Civil Affairs has not been specialized due to the establishment of new disaster relief institutions.This reflected the seriousness of the famine in the Republic of China and the importance the national government attached to famine relief.
The second stage is the eight years of the Anti-Japanese War.
During the Anti-Japanese War, the national government’s social relief administrative system changed a lot. The main reason was that there were so many refugee relief projects. The victory of the Anti-Japanese War requires a systematic and planned arrangement of the existing relief work and adjustment of various relief agencies to facilitate the progress of the Anti-Japanese War.To this end, adjust the Ministry of Social Affairs, set up relief committees and other relief agencies to straighten out the social administrative system.
The Ministry of Social Affairs was originally under the jurisdiction of the Kuomintang Party Headquarters. It was established in March 1938. It is in charge of mass training and social movements. organize".As for general social administration, the internal affairs, economics and relief committees are still responsible respectively.However, with the progress of the Anti-Japanese War, the disadvantages of prevarication were exposed. In order to coordinate the overall situation and improve administrative efficiency, the national government decided to carry out unified planning of social administration. In November 1939, Chiang Kai-shek instructed at the Sixth Plenary Session of the Fifth Central Committee of the Kuomintang: "Cooperative undertakings should be placed in charge of the Ministry of Social Affairs, and the Ministry of Social Affairs can be transferred to the Executive Yuan."
According to this instruction, the national government promulgated the "Organization Law of the Ministry of Social Affairs" in October 1940. On November 16, the Ministry of Social Affairs was formally established, with Gu Zhenggang as the first minister.The Ministry of Social Affairs is the highest social administrative organ, with three divisions, Organization and Training Division, Social Welfare Division, and General Affairs Division.
In addition to continuing to handle the business in charge of the former Central Ministry of Social Affairs, the new Ministry of Social Affairs also took over the business of various relevant agencies.Among them, social relief matters are handled by the Department of Social Welfare, and its main tasks include: unemployment relief, relief for the disabled, the elderly, the poor, detention and education for the unemployed, advocacy and implementation of medical care for the poor and sick, and planning for relief funds And review and inspection, guidance and supervision of the establishment of relief facilities, guidance and supervision of charitable organizations, connection and promotion of international relief, planning, guidance and improvement of social relief systems and social relief operations, selection, assessment, rewards and punishments of social relief workers, and other matters related to social relief .
With regard to local social administrative institutions, after the Ministry of Social Affairs was restructured, the 165th regular meeting of the Kuomintang Central Committee decided that each province should set up a social department under the provincial government, or set up a social department in the Civil Affairs Department, in charge of people's training, social movements, and social affairs. Relief, social welfare and other matters.The cities directly under the Executive Yuan are under the administration of the Social Affairs Bureau.In prefectural and municipal governments, social departments are set up.
At the beginning of the Anti-Japanese War, refugees rose in clouds. In order to relieve refugees, on September 7, 1937, the Executive Yuan passed the "Outline of Measures for Relief of Refugees in Extraordinary Times" and decided to establish the "Refugee Relief Committee in Extraordinary Times". Set up branches and set up branches in counties and cities.
The General Assembly is composed of "one senior staff member from each of the Executive Yuan, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Military Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Communications, the Ministry of Railways, the Department of Health, and the Relief Committee, and a member sent by the Executive Yuan as the chairman." As a result, a refugee relief system with an orderly hierarchy and tiered responsibilities has been established, specializing in refugee accommodation, transportation, provision, rescue, management, and other matters.However, with the further expansion of the war, the number of refugees doubled, and the defects of the Refugee Relief Committee were also revealed in the extraordinary period. First, the coordination of various ministries, commissions, and agencies was insufficient and the powers were not specialized, so they could not be truly responsible and increase efficiency; It is because there are many overlaps with the Relief Committee in terms of duties.The power of the Relief Committee is relatively small, and it is ranked under the ministries. The chairman of the committee is not allowed to attend the meetings of the Executive Yuan. The light power makes it unable to coordinate the overall situation.Since the existing relief agencies could not meet the needs of the relief of refugees during the Anti-Japanese War, the national government decided to unify the refugee relief agencies and improve the power and efficiency of relief administration to implement the government's wartime relief policy.Assigned by the Supreme Council of National Defense and deliberated by the Executive Yuan, the "Relief Committee" was established on April 27, 1938. The original Relief Committee and the Emergency Relief Committee of the Executive Yuan were merged and reorganized. Relief administration, which is in charge, is also placed under the control of the Relief Committee.Since then, the duties of the Department of Civil Affairs of the Ministry of the Interior have been greatly reduced.The "Organization Law of the Ministry of the Interior" promulgated this year stipulates that the social relief work that the Department of Civil Affairs is responsible for is only "disaster relief, poverty relief and other charitable matters." Although the Relief Committee is a temporary organization, its power is relatively heavy, and the chairman is a special appointment. , and attended Executive Yuan meetings.Kong Xiangxi, vice president of the Executive Yuan, served concurrently as chairman, Xu Shiying, former chairman of the Relief Committee, acted as chairman, and Qu Yingguang served as vice chairman.The Relief Committee is mainly set up for the relief of refugees and disaster victims. Its specific duties are: the guidance and supervision of disaster relief agencies and groups; the collection, storage and distribution of relief funds; the rescue, transportation, accommodation and provision of disaster victims and refugees; , resettlement allocation and job introduction; organization and subsidy of production enterprises for disaster victims and refugees; organization or subsidy of emergency relief and relief work; review of survey reports and apologies; design of disaster prevention and preparation; Guidance and supervision of charitable organizations; relief of the disabled, old and weak; education of orphans and children affected by disasters; support for the poor's life; training of homeless skills; medical subsidies for the poor and sick; etc.
In order to handle refugee relief matters in various provinces and regions, the Relief Committee not only immediately reorganized the provincial and county relief associations, refugee relief branches, etc., but established "provincial relief associations" and "county relief associations" to adjust their powers, and established 6 In the relief area, 26 refugee transport terminals, 132 sub-stations and 166 guest houses were set up on the refugee transfer route, all of which were assigned staff to guide and manage them, so as to improve work efficiency, alleviate the suffering of refugees, and enhance the confidence of refugees in winning the war of resistance.
The Relief Committee, as a temporary institution handling national relief during wartime, completed its mission with the end of the war. In November 1945, the Society was dissolved and its operations merged into the Rehabilitation and Relief Administration.
The third stage is from around the end of the Anti-Japanese War to the defeat of the Kuomintang in the mainland.
The Second World War displaced people from many countries around the world, destroyed their homes, and caused serious property losses. Solving the disasters and sufferings caused by the war is definitely not something that a single country can afford.Based on this consensus, on November 9, 1943, representatives of 44 countries signed the "United Nations Relief and Relief Convention" in the United States and decided to establish the "United Nations Rehabilitation and Relief Administration" or "General Assembly" as the executive agency.China is the founding country of the Federation. In January 1945, the China Branch of the Federation was established, named "General Administration of Rehabilitation and Relief of the Executive Yuan" for short, "Headquarters".
The head of the bank implements the administrator responsibility system, and Jiang Tingfu is the administrator.According to the "Organization Law of the General Administration of Rehabilitation and Relief" promulgated by the National Government on January 23, 1945, there are four departments and four departments: storage and transportation department, distribution department, finance department, relief department, investigation department, compilation department, general affairs department and accounting department .Among them, the social relief business is in the charge of the Relief Office and the Investigation Office.
The job of the head office is to deal with the aftermath of China’s relief, so that the people in the cities and villages that were destroyed by the Japanese aggression can obtain the minimum living conditions such as food, clothing, housing and transportation after the war, so that the production enterprises such as agriculture, industry, mining, transportation, etc. can return to normal as soon as possible, that is, "demobilization" will return to normal economic life.
Specifically, the bank head is responsible for refugee transportation and resumption of business; refugee welfare; refugee industry; investigation of displaced people; investigation of industrial and commercial damage; investigation of disasters in flooded areas; and other investigations related to aftermath and relief.
On September 12, 1945, the National Government promulgated the "Regulations on the Organization of Rehabilitation and Relief Sub-Administrations." According to the regulations, the head office set up branch offices in recovered areas across the country to handle aftermath and relief affairs in designated areas.According to the geographical characteristics of the recovered area and the situation of the victims, the Bank Headquarters divided the branches into the Northeast Branch (including ten provinces and two cities in the Northeast), the Hebei Repingjin Branch, the Shanxi Sui Police Branch, the Luqing Branch, the Henan Branch, the Suning Branch, the Anhui Branch, Hubei branch, Hunan branch, Guangxi branch, Guangdong branch, Jiangxi branch, Zhejiang-Fujian branch, Taiwan branch, Shanghai branch and other 15 branches set up 5 direct-government offices in western Yunnan, Fujian and the anti-Japanese base areas of the Communist Party of China.
In order to receive and transfer the materials allocated by the Federation to China, storage and transportation bureaus were set up in Shanghai, Tianjin, Qingdao, Kowloon, Guangzhou, and Dalian.
According to the provisions of the General Convention, the working period is limited to two years. Before the work of the head office ended in 1947, the relief administration urgently needed to be adjusted. According to the resolution of the Executive Yuan meeting, the relief business of the head office was handed over to the Ministry of Social Affairs, and the aftermath business was handed over to the newly established aftercare business committee to continue handling.
During the two years of its existence, the head office has assisted 1.5 million people to return to their hometowns, released 900,000 tons of food, 28,000 tons of clothing, and benefited 60 million people. It also helped 5 million hungry people in Hunan and Guangxi who were on the verge of death due to famine. Thousands of people have gained opportunities to recuperate and receive education from their displaced lives.
At this stage, the Ministry of Social Affairs adjusted its business scope. First, the Social Welfare Department was established to manage social insurance, social services, job placement, and the care and education of the poor, old, weak, and disabled. a clear boundary.However, the scope of the Social Welfare Department's responsibilities is too broad, which is not conducive to the development of management and social welfare. When the head office was abolished in 1947, the social relief business was assigned to the Ministry of Social Affairs, and the responsibility of the Ministry of Social Affairs increased sharply. In addition, in order to further promote the development of social insurance, the National Government planned to establish a Social Insurance Bureau. In this way, the social insurance business was transferred from the Social Welfare Department. allocated to specialize the functions of the Social Welfare Division.The adjusted Social Welfare Department has four divisions. The first division is in charge of agricultural and industrial welfare and international labor matters, the second division is in charge of national employment, the third division is in charge of social relief, and the fourth division is in charge of child welfare.So far, "the national government's dedicated social welfare institutions have been established.
At the same time, traditional social relief agencies no longer exist in the government's organizational system".
3. Conclusion Through the analysis, it is not difficult to see that the social relief administration of the Republic of China initially established a central first-level full-time relief agency with the presidential system as the core, and defined relief work as an important government action.The social relief administration in the Republic of China developed towards systematization and specialization, and the social relief administration became an integral part of the social security organization, which indicated the progress of the social undertakings in the Republic of China.
However, there were still some problems in the social administration of the Republic of China, the most important being the lack of social relief talents and the imperfection of social administration theory and technology.As far as the shortage of talents is concerned, the government appoints senior and respected gentry directors or good-doers from rich merchants and wealthy households to handle social relief projects.Most of the general social administrators are non-professionals, and lack of training in the dedication, hard work, sound personality, tolerance and knowledge required by social relief.As far as the theory of social administration is concerned, social relief cannot be understood from the height of "owned by the people, for the people", and it is inevitable that some people will regard it as a kind of favor from the upper class to the lower class, and the talents who handle social administration, Either they are better than experience but lack theory, or they are better than Western theories but cannot be combined with Chinese reality.
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