Vs No Accident To Happen: Grassroots Governance Action Logic Research

Nowadays, grassroots governance in China has sunk into a logical dilemma, to be specific, the government hopes no incident happens but the people welcome big incidents. So how to get out of this dilemma is a major issue in the study of grassroots governance. The thesis starts with the action logic of grassroots governance and attempts to answer these questions:what’s the connotation of action logic of grassroots governance? What theoretical tools should be used to study the action logic? How is the action logic formed? What is the future trend of action logic? The answers to these questions are of significance for breaking away the dilemma of grassroots governance.The thesis, by following the logic route of "what, why and how", studies the basic connotation, analytical framework, history, cause of formation, case analysis, overseas experience and future trend of the action logic of grassroots governance step by step. In the section of basic connotation, the thesis analyzes and sums up some cases to explain the connotations, features, factors and relations between the "hope no event happens" and the "hope to see big incidents", which is the basis of follow-up studies; in the analytical framework section, the thesis considers the limits of existing theoretical tools in explaining action logic. As a result, it absorbs the theory of state-society relations theory, rational selection theory, social conflict theory and Hooke’s law while considering the realities in grassroots governance before proposing the new analytical framework of spring model for the action logic of grassroots governance. The core assumption of spring model is that the interaction between action subjects follows the law of elasticity. Besides, in accordance with the location relations between the action subjects on the ends of the spring, the spring model includes the vertical spring model and horizontal spring model with the latter one being the future trend of spring model. To what extent the action subjects are organized determines three circumstances of using the spring model. At the same time, the thesis points out the three circumstances develop from low to high; in the section of history, the thesis, in view of system, analyzes how the action logic of grassroots governance evolves in the history, and what is the relation between spring model and the action logics in different historical periods; in the section of cause of formation, the thesis answers the question of why the action logic comes into being. In this section, it analyzes whether such major factors as social system, cultural traditions, rational selection, social structure, information technology and civic society have influenced on the formation of action logic and what influence they have imposed; in the section of case analysis, it first presents three representative cases before making analysis from the perspective of rational selection and law of elasticity. On the one hand, it proves the assumption. On the other hand, it tests and verifies the suitability of the analytical framework through these cases. At the same time, the case analysis, through the empirical materials, identifies how the action logic is formed; in the section of overseas experience, the thesis selects four countries and regions with evident achievements in grassroots governance as the objects. Then it sums up the gained experience from the perspective of how the government and people effectively interact with each other. At the same time, the thesis makes analysis how the experience is gained based on the realities of Chinese grassroots governance; in the section of future trend, the thesis studies how to break out of the dilemma of grassroots governance, how to transform the action logic of grassroots governance and to which direction it should be transformed because it bears upon the future trend of action logic. This section first studies the experience of grassroots governance in a few representative countries and regions. Then it points out the future direction theoretically before making some counter-measures of exosystem level.Because the action logic of grassroots governance follows the law of elasticity, it is imperative to transform the logic to get out of the dilemma and the orthodox of "hope no incident happens" and "hope to see big incidents". The law of elasticity reveals that only with relatively equal location relations between the action subjects, effectively organized people plus observance of the logic of "hope minor incident happens", can the grassroots governance realize positive development. The thesis tries to make three breakthroughs, namely, the breakthrough in discipline borders, in analytical tools and in counter-measure proposals. As far as discipline border is concerned, currently, most studies in grassroots governance involve social sciences such as politics, sociology and management. This thesis boldly uses the concepts and theories of physics and breaks the border between natural science and social science by expanding the vision field of academic studies and conducting trans-disciplinary and cross-discipline studies. As far as the analytical tools are concerned, the current studies of grassroots governance mostly adopt rational selection theory to study the action rule of action subjects. Based on the existing theories, the thesis puts forward the law of elasticity for the grassroots governance study, which is used to analyze the relations between the government and the people. This is an attempt and breakthrough in theory. As far as the counter-measure proposal is concerned, the accurate cognition of grassroots governance action logic will provide theoretical reference for the local governments to make laws, regulations and policies of social management. It will also produce positive and far-reaching influence on the action of two action subjects in the grassroots governance, which will speed up China’s pace of making institutional reform of social management.