权力构成社会管理的必备基础和前提条件,其中软权力是重要因素。从社会管理的发展脉络和现实需求来看,强调主客体双向互动、协商合作和心理认同的软权力,对社会管理的影响更为深刻、持久和深入。经验表明,开发软权力具有客观必然性和现实可能性。当前,硬权力的日趋捉襟见肘和软权力空间的急速扩大为后者在社会管理语境中的积极应用奠定了现实基础,而社会契约论、协商民主和协同政府理论则成为它的理论注脚。积极开发社会管理中的软权力,需要构建协商合作型社会管理体制和重构政府与社会之间的互信。 Power constitutes the necessary foundation and prerequisite for social management, of which soft power is an important factor. From the perspective of the development of social management and the actual needs, it is more profound, lasting and in-depth to exert greater influence on social management by emphasizing the soft power of two-way interaction between subjects and objects, consultation and cooperation and psychological approval. Experience shows that the development of soft power has the objective necessity and realistic possibility. At present, the growing hard power and the rapid expansion of soft power space have laid a solid foundation for the latter’s active application in the context of social management. Social contract theory, consultative democracy and collaborative government theory have become its theoretical footnotes. To actively develop soft power in social management, we need to establish a consultative and cooperative social management system and reconstruct the mutual trust between the government and the society.