3. Practical Exploration and Institutional Innovation in Co-governance by Multiple Subjects

Co-governance by multiple subjects on the basis of rule of law is recapitulative experience from practical explorations in China’s social governance, and also a new requirement raised in the practice. As an institutional innovation in social governance, multi-subject co-governance exhibit four characteristics: multiple subjects, an open and complex co-governing system, a co-governing mechanism based on dialogue, competition, compromise, cooperation and collective action and a final output oriented towards common interests. Multi-subject co-governance is not an exit of the government, nor “a small government or weak government”, but a co-governance mode of “a small government, a strong government and a big society”.