Social Sciences in China, 2023

Vol. 44 , No. 3, 2023

Practical Paths and Innovative Developments in Rural Governance Reform in China: Based on Leading Cases from 2019 to 2022

Abstract：Successful examples are formed through benchmarking and establishing pioneers, and policy diffusion is carried out through the concept of exemplary leadership and progressive promotion, in accordance with the national policy deployment of rural governance. In addition to combining the two benefits of rural social promotion and national policy support, this also creates an interactive pathway between national policy promotion and rural active response. We should not only concentrate on the national administrative system but also pay attention to the peculiarities of primary-level governance in order to study the workings of exemplary leadership. The National Rural Governance Leading Cases highlight the extensive scope, wide range of manifestations, and unique characteristics of China’s wave of rural governance reform efforts in the new era. The combination of feeling the stones to cross the river and strengthening top-level design better reflects the logic of exemplary leadership in contemporary rural governance. These two strategies are based on the five practical dimensions of Party-building leadership, departmental coordination, integration of self-governance, rule of law, and rule of virtue, creation of new approaches, and multi-stakeholder governance.

Keywords: rural governance, policy experimentation, exemplary leadership, rural governance