Grassroots Government’s Action Logics Of Land Acquisition Process In Rural Areas

In recent years, although various extreme incidents, including emergencies and mass disturbances, caused by land acquisitions and demolitions in China can always be found in newspapers, they remain the focus of media attention as well as the hotspot of public discussion. However, as eye-catching as these incidents are, they are not actually the normal consequences of the process of numerous land acquisitions and demolitions. In fact, the most commonly existing situations are similar to an adventure game in which different stakeholders strive to maximize their own interests by using their strengths, resources, and strategies; a game with no blood but filled with balances between rules and human feelings; tensions and contests between enforcements and consents. Actually, these are the common phenomena in today’s Chinese society, which hence has an important significance for study and research.This paper introduces a thorough analysis of a typical individual case of land acquisition in the rural area of China. Having chosen the microcosmic interaction which happened during the process of land acquisition between the grassroots government and the bottom of the public as the main lead, this paper tries to reveal grassroots government’s action logic, which are reflected in the process of the origination and resolution of the conflicts between the expropriation party and the requisition party, by seeking the motivation and basis of its decision, as well as the constraining force and available resources. An in-depth discussion on the action logic of grassroots government is also included.This paper suggests that under the particular political system of China, the grassroots government, which acts as the closest government body to rural areas in our administrative management system, is being placed in an embarrassing situation where the power and the responsibility are severely non-equivalent. Moreover, the grassroots government itself is right in the middle of social networks of the acquaintance society, which has much tangle with the local society. The unique leader-member relation and official-general public relation make the grassroots government choose other solutions than compulsory confiscation during the process of land acquisition, which provides possibility for "peaceful demolition". In the process of haggle between the grassroots government and the bottom of the public, compromises and cooperation can be reached. So this paper also tries to further reveal and analyze the hidden concerns and issues under this "peaceful demolition" which is made possible by both parties’compromises and cooperation.