Urbanization and Village Governance Restructuring in China: A Comparative Case Study of Guangzhou, Beijing and Yi Wu
China's rapid urbanization has amazed the world, with over 500 million rural peasants becoming urban residents in just three decades. However, this process has been marked by significant variations in local governance practices across the country. While researchers have focused on the effects of central state power decentralization on local state restructuring, little attention has been paid to how the institutional complexities of village governance impact the collective power of villagers to resist the state. To address this gap, our study presents a comparative case study of different village organizations and governance institutions.
Our research, based on nearly two decades of fieldwork in Guangzhou, Beijing, and Yiwu, examines the evolution, processes, and outcomes of property rights and welfare reforms in more than 50 urbanizing villages. Our findings reveal the emergence of three village governance models – community-led, state-led, and market-led – driven by various forms of state intervention in the process of urbanization. These models provide different forms of institutional framework for local initiatives to promote self-governance and respond to state interventions during urban transformation.
These findings have both theoretical and practical implications. The impact of urbanization on local governance in China is a topic of increasing scholarly interest. One central question in this debate is why the diversity of governance practices does not challenge the subordinate relationship between localities and the central state. Our study's findings shed light on the changing nature of state interventions and their actual influence on the daily practice of grassroots governance, providing new insights to unravel this puzzle. From a practical standpoint, our findings offer valuable insights for improving the operation of village organizations and critically evaluating the impact of city government interventions. This will inform policy-making and guide local actions towards people-oriented urbanization, poverty alleviation, and rural revitalization, which have gained prominence in China and beyond.
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State Restructuring and Governance Transformation in Urbanizing China: From a Micro-historical Perspective
China’s urban population has undergone a substantial surge, increasing from 191 million in 1980 to approximately 920 million in 2022. This impressive urban growth can be attributed to the active stimulation of market forces, endorsement of decentralized decision-making, and fostering of local economic development by the Chinese government. However, the expected neoliberal growth has not materialized despite this urbanization process. Previous studies primarily attributed this outcome to the authoritarian tradition of the socialist state. This research draws on over two decades of intensive field research encompassing various village redevelopment projects in Southern China. The findings challenge the prevailing notion by proposing that the indigenous village communities wield significant influence over the trajectory of neoliberal growth and governance transformation in the country. As a result, this study emphasizes the importance of adopting a micro-historical approach to incorporate the role of village communities into the analysis of state-society power dynamics in unbanning China.
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