National Basic Power Reconstituting In Village Petition Process

Development of China’s rural reform is a government–led process. In recentyears, in order to improve the situation of rural governance, the Chinese governmentmaintains intensive policy input on rural areas. But results are unsatisfactory. It isdifficult for national guidelines and policies to effectively penetrate into the community,which reflects the practice of state power mechanisms exist. The will of the state will bedeformed and digestion in the sinking process. How to enhance state power? How toeffectively penetrate national guidelines, policies, systems, rules into rural community?It is the key to achieving long-term stability of the rural society.Under the theoretical framework of national power base and focus on peasant landprotests which gradual building conflict energy and eventually broke, country play avery important role in the evolution of the petition event. Taking county government asthe main target, this paper analyzed how to digested national basic power step by stepunder current administration and government institutional framework and personalrelationship and tried to answer “Is it possible to reconstruction national basic powers inrural areas?”There are two ways for a state come into rural society: one is through policies,systems, norms, as well as “moral concept of the state” which comes from nationalideology proactively building and taking farmers as fundamental, safeguarding theoverall interests, long-term interests and the public interests. The other path is takingincreasingly rational organization system as power. Among them, formal administrativeinstitutional framework and informal networks of relationships are two key variablesaffecting national entity.China’s administrative system is a hierarchical organization with high internaldivision and diverse interests. In order to achieve effective supervision and incentivestowards lower government, pressurized system is widely used for local government toimpose super-strength monitoring and incentives. In the petition governance, the use of objective responsibility brought pressure of rigid maintenance of stability for grassrootspetition, which is the institutional context of the case development. In the formal system,there is a lot of informal interpersonal functioning. In county political environment,county and township cadre population is a strategic group with consistent goal andcooperative action. This informal network of relationships forms exclusive and closedpolitical system of the county. Cadre triggered network is the structural causes ofcontradictions between officials and the public and the reasons of the state will difficultpenetrating into rural areas.Combined effect of formal institutions and informal networks of relationships, inthe implementation of national policies, there are a lot of alternative target behavior,rigid command and resilient means in county government. County government showspersonalized color and characteristics that pursuit of short-term performance andnegative letters governance. And finally, national policy deviated from the originalintention of the policy process. Localized state power authority appeared capitalizationpractice consequences.The main idea of peasant protest action was trying to break through the barrier oflocal power and told central experience of own was injustice and required centralinvolvement in their lives. Farmers tried find effective tools: judicial relief, the petitionaction, forced subdivision, media assistance and final violent. Farmers’ changing tacticswas opportunistic, including legal, moral, national and even violence, as long as there isconducive to achieving goals.Finally, this paper answered the question that “Is it possible to reconstructionnational basic powers in rural areas?”Two paths into the countryside of the countryculminated the gap between power practice and system text. National duality in farmers’notion formed. Fundamental national powers weakening and authoritarian abuses wasthe overall description of state power dilemma of rural society.This paper argues that concentration of power and without effective restraint is thesource of weakening control on local government and farmers for state power.Therefore, it is proposed that democracy and rule of law should be put into countygovernment comprehensive reform. The responsibility and power of decision-making, implementation and monitoring should be rational allocated. Multi-national powers inrural society should be expanded and farmers and local agents will be included underthe common law framework of governance. Find rural society ideology rural integrationcapabilities and foster rural social power, in order to achieve state power and rural socialpower of strong mutual symbiosis.