ABSTRACT
The profound economic and social transformations in urban China have created tremendous challenges for grassroots governance. A large body of literature has documented the challenges, which include issues in community services, management and organizations, and has analyzed the evolution of approaches and mechanisms in dealing with those challenges. The expansion of the state at the grass roots – in terms of manpower and financial resources – is also seen as important for the “infrastructural power,” and so is the “great society” as long as it is under Party leadership. The Party also views the technology that coordinates fragmented authority as part of the “infrastructural power.” The concept of grassroots governance is an evolving one in China. In China’s administrative system, a city has two layers of government: the municipal government and the lower district governments.
