"Housing Removal Trilogy": Grassroots Operation Of State Power

Through critical evaluations of researches on the state and society relations in transitional China,from the perspective of “power operation”, this paper takes the housing removal happened inChangjiang Town as a case, and summarizes the state’s logic of “Balancing Relations”:“HousingRemoval Trilogy”, which includes “Setting Examples” in the beginning stage,“Outside Efforts” inthe middle stage and “Solving Nails” at last. This paper thinks that the relation between state andsociety has transcended the traditional interaction models and presents a characteristic of highlystrategic---lowly institutionalized. On the one hand, as the transition of social structure and interestdifferentiation, the state can not “Win All” any longer in the gamble of Housing Removal with thesociety, which means state is forced to give society certain space to develop. On the other hand, afterobtaining certain development space, as a rational action subject, the society shows its subjectiveinitiative in gamble with the state to maintain their own legitimate rights and interests, which expandand consolidate the development space. Since the obtained development space is the outcome of“Reversed Transmission”, once the society touches the sate power boundary and has substantialconflicts with the state, the final “abdication” remains the former.