What Is the Rational Choice of Community Governance Policy

Abstract

Community governance is the “micro-cell” of social governance and the foundation of the governance system. The rational selection logic of community governance policy reflects the value orientation, goal selection, and tool guarantee of governance policy. It is the result of the interaction between government and public values and it reflects the final value choice in the form of policy text and tries to balance policy rationality through accurate calculation. Through the analysis of 100 government work reports and 63 community governance policy documents of the Chinese government from 2013 to 2022, it was found that “People-oriented” was the core value orientation of governance policy. “Better life” was a key target choice for governance policy. “Diversified tools” were an important implementation guarantee for governance policy. These rational choices were consistent between the central and the local governments, but there was a conflict between localities. Urban and rural community governance policies need to establish a public space between policy rationality and value selection to solve the targeting bias of policy rationality in the future. This paper solves the conflict between policy rationality and value choice using the paths of expert think tank construction, highlighting leading goals, and using technology empowerment, to adjust the tension between the two through reasonable value choice and balanced policy rationality, to achieve the goal of urban and rural community governance modernization.