From Government–Society to Party–Masses: The Community Governance Mode Change in Shenzhen

Abstract

Most urban community studies in China rely on the state–society framework. However, this structural perspective can hardly explain the diverse modes of community governance and their changes over time. This article outlines Shenzhen's 20-year (1999–2019) history of community reform and constructs a framework based on historical institutionalism to analyse Shenzhen's community governance modes over various periods and their changes. First, diversified governance ideas and power structures constructed various community governance modes over this period. Second, community governance mode changes were embedded in local grassroots governance fields. The original governance arrangements, the policy guidance and the ideas of the dominant agencies (the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Party) at different stages are critical in explaining the transformation of community governance modes. Third, the dominant subject's institutional bricolage within the constraints and empowerment of the institutional context was the critical mechanism of the governance mode transformation. The historical institutionalism framework for community governance transformation provides a new direction for understanding community reform and evaluating evolving local state–society relations.