Official Governance and Self-governance: The Reconstruction of Grassroots Social Order in China

358 Pages·2022·3.341 MB·English

by  Qingzhi Zhou

Official Governance
and Self-governance
The Reconstruction
of Grassroots Social
Order in China
Qingzhi Zhou
Official Governance and Self-governance
Qingzhi Zhou
Official Governance
and Self-governance
The Reconstruction of Grassroots Social Order
in China
Qingzhi Zhou
Institute of Political Science
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
Beijing, China
ISBN 978-981-19-6600-2 ISBN 978-981-19-6601-9 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-6601-9
Jointly published with Social Sciences Academic Press
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Contents
1 Foreword 1
Part I The Transformation of Traditional Grassroots
Social Order and Significance of Its Modern
Construction
2 The Cognitive Paradigms for Understanding
Traditional Grassroots Social Order 11
2.1 Self-Governance or Official Governance 11
2.2 Different Cognitive Paradigms for Understanding
Self-Governance and Official Governance 13
2.3 The Theoretical Origin of the Cognitive Paradigms 20
3 Rules of Order: Structure of Social Authorities
at the Grassroots 25
3.1 Rules and Order 25
3.2 Public Sphere and Private Sphere 28
3.3 Rule of Rituals: A Method or Something Else 32
4 The Structure of Social Order and the Relationship
Between Society and State 37
4.1 Order Through the Rule of Rituals and Law
and the Relationship Between the Society
and the State 38
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vi CONTENTS
4.2 The Order Dimension of Tax System: Relationship
of Personal Bondage in the Imperial Society 44
4.3 The Structural Pattern of Social Authority
and Power at the Grassroots 49
5 Grassroots Governance by Local Government Clerks
and Runners and Its Modern Transformation: Social
Restructuring and Remolding of Social Order 57
5.1 Rectification of Grassroots Governance by Local
Government Clerks and Runners 58
5.2 Social Restructuring and Modernization
of Grassroots Authority 62
5.3 From Order Through the Rule of Rituals and Laws
to Order Through Modern Authority 64
6 The Significance of Modern Construction
of Grassroots Social Order 67
6.1 The Historical Evolution of Social Order
Transformation 67
6.2 Social Authority Order System at the Grassroots 71
6.3 The Nature and the Changes of Public Social
Relationships 73
Part II The Contemporary Authority Structure and
Governance System of Grassroots Social Order
7 The Historical Basis of the Governance Order
in Rural Society 81
7.1 The Order of Governance in Rural Society 82
7.2 The Principle of Order and the Form of Authority
in Rural Society 88
7.3 The Ruling Characteristics of Governance in Rural
Society 92
8 Finance and Governance (1): The Nature
of Government Power and Its Boundaries 97
8.1 Changes of Power Boundaries Reflected in the Fiscal
Account 99
8.2 Functions of Public Finance and Public Demands 126
CONTENTS vii
9 Finance and Governance (2): The Significance
of Public Finance Restructuring at the Grassroots
for Social Governance Transformation 139
9.1 Public Finance and Its Significance for Modern
Governance 141
9.2 Between Imperium and Dominium 147
9.3 The Significance of Institutional Reform for Public
Finance Construction 152
9.4 Construction of Public Finance and Transformation
of Social Governance 157
10 Rules and Order: The Transformation of Grassroots
Social Governance 171
10.1 Order of Governance and Authority 172
10.2 Structure of Grassroots Governance by Authority 175
10.3 From Order Under Rule by Government
Authoritative to Order Under Self-Rule 181
10.4 Public Rules and Their Implications for Social Order 188
11 Grassroots Public Political Culture 191
11.1 The Significance of Public Political Culture
for Governance 191
11.2 The Public Sphere and Public Political Culture 196
11.3 Transformation of the Public Sphere and Evolution
of Public Political Culture 201
11.4 Building a Public Political Culture Based
on Political and Cultural Ties 203
12 Forms of Rights for Members of the Rural Society:
From Primary Community to State-Based Community 213
12.1 From Small Community to Large Community 214
12.2 Foundation of Rural Governance: Lack of Civil
Rights 219
12.3 Full Civil Rights and Transformation of Rural
Governance 225
12.4 Democratization and Legislation for Rural
Governance 230
viii CONTENTS
13 The Rights Distribution System for Urban Residents 235
13.1 Urbanization and Grouping of Urban Population
by Household Registration Status 235
13.2 Rights Under a Dual Structure: Household
Registration in Urbanized Areas 239
13.3 Identity Groups and Authoritarian Governance 245
13.4 From Identity to Contract, and the Granting
of Civil Rights 251
13.5 Urbanization and the Entitlements 260
14 Social Organizations in Historical and Social Contexts 265
14.1 Civil Social Organizations or Governmental
NonGovernmental Organizations? 265
14.2 Social Organizations in Historical Context 269
14.3 The Changing Import of Traditional Forms
of Social Organization in Modern China 272
14.4 Mirroring of Social Organizations in Contemporary
China 278
14.5 Definition of Social Organizations in Contemporary
China 287
15 Documentary Governance: How Authority Is
Exercised and Its Significance for Order and Rules 293
15.1 Documentary Governance: A Form of Governance
Between Democracy and Autocracy 294
15.2 Origin of Formalized Rules and Form of Authority 298
15.3 Documentary Governance and Public Social
Relationships 303
15.4 Documentary Governance and Law-Based
Governance: Authority, Rules and Others 308
16 Co-governance by Officials and the People 311
16.1 Official Governance or Self-Governance: Different
Narratives 312
16.2 Interlocking Power System: A Hybrid Governance
System 316
16.3 Construction of Social Power and the Changing
Nature of Public Social Relationships 322
CONTENTS ix
17 Restructuring Order: Forty Years of Grassroots
Governance Reform in China 327
17.1 Structural Changes: Public Social Relationships 327
17.2 Changes in the Grassroots Governance System 331
17.3 Reform and Transformation of Grassroots
Governance 333
References 345
About the Author
Qingzhi Zhou, Doctor of Laws (sociology major), Director and
Researcher of the Research Office of Political Culture of the Institute
of Political Science, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Postdoc co-
supervisor, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor of the Graduate School of
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. His research areas include political
sociology, social anthropology and history. He has published six mono-
graphs, including The County-level Administrative Structure of China
and Its Operation: A Sociological Survey of County W , Grassroots Social
Autonomy of China, County Politics: Authority, Resources, and Order,
Between the Government and the Society: Issues of Grassroots Governance.
Over 100 of his papers have been published in a wide range of academic
journals such as Journal of Political Science, Journal of Nanjing Univer-
sity, Journal of Wuhan University, Journal of Central China Normal
University and more than 50 have been reprinted in Xinhua Digest,
Chinese Social Science Digest, and the database “Newspapers and Peri-
odicals Reprinted by Renmin University of China”.
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