Collaborative governance: A potential approach to preventing violent demolition in China

Abstract

Due to the unbalanced and confrontational state-citizen relationship, China's urban redevelopment has been accompanied with continuous violent conflicts, which to a large extent damages the public image of Chinese government in recent years. This article first overviews the governance dilemma underlying China's violent demolition from the perspective of institutional arrangement, and then argues a collaborative approach can be a remedy for the dilemma. After the introduction and definition of collaborative governance, this article demonstrates its application in preventing violent demolition with the Caojiaxiang project in Chengdu as a case. It is found that collaborative governance is advantageous in enhancing the legitimacy of governance, increasing the potential to find effective solutions, and enhancing the trust between government and citizens. Despite the disadvantages of collaborative governance, including limited effect and the dependence on social capital, quality of stakeholders' interaction and leadership, this paper argues the success of Caojiaxiang project may be duplicated given the following institutional requirements are met: 1) an institutional procedure to establish and operate evictees' association in urban redevelopment projects; 2) an effective complaint system for the upper-level government to monitor the malpractice of lower-level government; and 3) an judicial system independent of local governments and legal proceeding over any illegal behavior in demolition.