An Analysis Of Residents Committee's Action Behind The Successful Election Of Community

Direct elections of residents'committee have been held increasingly in Chinese cities since 1990s. It reflects, to some extent, the government's adjusting local management to the changing society. Many efforts have been done in this aspect but most interest is laid on the macroscopic, static and institutional level, government behavior and citizen's participation. As it is known, there is little attention on the residents committee as an actor, and the organizational features of residents'committee are ignored. Therefore, this paper takes the direct election of residents'committee in X district of Shanghai as an example to make a deconstructing analysis for the act strategy and logic of residents'committee, with choosing actor-oriented perspective and taking residents'committee as a strategic actor with independent act logic. And then, to further understand and explain the phenomenon about direct election of community committee, the author represents the action path model of residents'committee under the "successfully" direct election of community committee.This research discloses as following:The strategic act of residents'committee and the results of the 9th direct election of community are closely connected in X district of Shanghai,------high participation rate, high concentration of voting and reappointment. (1) getting informed, under the logistic of "bureaucracy", the residents'committee posited its identity consciously and defined goals of direct election through one-way communication with superior government agencies; (2) in preparing for voting, the cooperation between residents' committee and community activist made persons who was selected by the Street Government in advance become candidates, and the residents'committee, through community enthusiasts' function as Relais Privilegies, imposed "intentional" influence on voters and achieved the goal of organizing contemplation; (3) On voting stage, facing with shallow indifference of community residents, the residents'committee on one hand leave no stone unturned to realize turnout through actions and strategies including showing hospitable to the voters, helping to introduce candidates, instead vote and so on; on the other hand, residents'committee pursued the legal procedure for obtaining recognition of the direct election's results by community residents. Above is the action path of residents' committee. Benefited from the action path, residents'committee completed the electoral task successfully. Therefore, according to the aims of Street Government, under community activist's cooperation and common residents'indifference, the direct election of community committee that directed and organized by the residents'committee became a democratic show.