Official Governance and Self-governance (eBook)

This book offers a new interpretation of the evolution and modernization of social order in China's grass-roots communities. Traditionally, social order at the grass-roots level was maintained through an organic combination of self-rule by the people and authority rule by political leaders. As a hybrid form of social order, therefore, it not only has features of autonomy but also reflects the power of the state apparatus. Despite the modernization of the nation-state, the old rules sustaining social order at the grass-roots level are still very much in effect and have seamlessly integrated into the new social structure. Unless we fully appreciate this fundamental continuity, we would not be able to understand how social order at the grass-roots level today is upheld and functions. And the modernization of social order at the grass-roots level is most fruitfully studied from the perspectives of the construction of modern public social relations and the development of grass-roots systems of social autonomy.

Qingzhi Zhou is Doctor of Laws, Director and Researcher of the Research Office of Political Culture of the Institute of Political Science, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. His research areas include political sociology, social anthropology and history. His monographs include: 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 University, 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 others.

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This book offers a new interpretation of the evolution and modernization of social order in China's grass-roots communities. Traditionally, social order at the grass-roots level was maintained through an organic combination of self-rule by the people and authority rule by political leaders. As a hybrid form of social order, therefore, it not only has features of autonomy but also reflects the power of the state apparatus. Despite the modernization of the nation-state, the old rules sustaining social order at the grass-roots level are still very much in effect and have seamlessly integrated into the new social structure. Unless we fully appreciate this fundamental continuity, we would not be able to understand how social order at the grass-roots level today is upheld and functions. And the modernization of social order at the grass-roots level is most fruitfully studied from the perspectives of the construction of modern public social relations and the development of grass-roots systems of social autonomy.