Constructing Moral Governance in China Today: The Law‒Morality‒Self-Governance Connection

Abstract

Abstract This paper asks how moral governance [dezhi 德治] infrastructure has expanded under Xi Jinping. The Xi leadership has designed this expansion by framing moral governance activity within what it calls the Three Governances (law-based governance, moral governance and self-governance), which, in turn sits under the Chinese Communist Party Political-Legal Committee’s social governance regime. Moral governance has expanded as part of the Xi leadership’s efforts to enhance the Party’s governance capacity-building in the area of social governance in three main ways: through ideology, social governance plans, and community engagement. The Party has broadened the boundaries of what elements of social relations it considers risky or capable of inducing social disorder, and in so doing, it has broadened the boundaries of its response to its own perceived expansion of risks. The Party has integrated moral governance into its overall comprehensive social governance ambitions to enhance its capacity to securitize the grassroots, which is the Xi leadership’s number one governance priority.