Ideas,Powers And Actors:The Institutional Logic Of Rural Governance In China

As the old Chinese saying goes: To govern a country,to keep safety and order among people,systems should be established and perfected.As one of the most important factors affecting the development of human society,the institution always promotes or hinders social development in a potential or obvious way.As there is a long process,institutional changes permeate all aspects of people's production and life,which intentionally or unintentionally has a profound impact on society.Since the founding of New China,China has undergone tremendous change in all aspects of society,such as politics,economy and culture,and has continuously explored,established and perfected the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics in practice.In the Fourth Plenary Session of the 19 th CPC Central Committee,the Party,for the first time,pointed out that ‘the socialist institution with Chinese characteristics is a scientific institution formed by the Party and the people in long-term practice,and the epitome of which is the national system and capacity for governance.It is also the first time officially making overall arrangements about the institution strengths.Institution is becoming a core word through China.In this context,in which rural governance system is the main system of national institutions,it is becoming a key component in currently constructing the national system that how to construct and perfect it,which theory can be used to analyze it and how to systematically discuss the logic in it.In China,the rural society has been called the "stabilizer" of social development.In other words,the stable development of the rural society is the base to ensure sustainable economic growth and maintain social harmony in our country.Since the founding of New China,the institution of our rural governance has undergone several changes,in which the patterns showed different trends during different periods.Thus,there are some issues that have been raised,which are: For the changes of the rural governance institution in China,what are the forms and important features? What are the internal and external factors? What is the logic behind? Why do some rural governance institutions have been maintaining for a long time and gradually optimized,yet the others just went from bad to worse? And what kind of forms and trends will the rural governance show in the future? Based on these issues,this paper,following the theoretical perspective of new institutionalism,has introduced the core concepts of the critical junctures approach,the punctuated equilibrium and path dependence theory in the study of institutional change,and in-depth analyzed the history of rural governance in China,the track of change,the logical chain of change and the fundamental reasons leading to institutional change,expecting to show a complete picture of the change of rural governance system in China.Based on the analysis method of the historical institutionalism,this paper has extracted the core concepts of mainstream theory of new institutionalism,which includes historical institutionalism,sociological institutionalism and constructivist institutionalism,and has constructed a theoretical framework to explain the institutional changes of rural governance in China,which is named“Ideas-Power-Actors” framework.Firstly,this paper has analyzed historical changes of rural governance in China,has combined the critical junctures approach of historical institutionalism with the specific circumstances of rural governance in China,and then has put forward the core indicators of the critical junctures of rural governance,which are the crisis of rural governance,the fundamental policy changes and the ideas changes.According to these three indicators,this paper has divided the process of rural governance changes into three parts.To work around the core issue‘What are the changes of rural governance institution in New China?',this paper has analyzed the policy of rural governance based on three goals: macro,meso and micro goal,by starting with analyzing relevant theories.Moreover,it has analyzed how this institution change.To work around the core issue ‘How did the rural governance institution change in New China?',this paper has,firstly,analyzed the specific forms and structural changes of state power in rural society in different periods,and explores the internal logical connection between the changes of rural governance institution and the power withdrew in governing rural society;secondly,explored the specific impact of main actors,such as the government,the committee and workers,in the institution changes,and analyze the internal logical connection between these actors and the institution changes.To work around the core issue ‘Why did the rural governance institution change in New China?”,this paper has summarized that the process of institutional change of the rural governance in China basically follows the logical chain which is changing ideas,adjusting structures of power and discussing with main actors.Based on these analysis,this paper has proposed some suggestions of improving the institutional mechanism of the rural governance in the new period.