Social Sciences in China, 2020

Vol. 41, No. 4, 2020

Adaptive Social Mobilization in Grassroots Policy Implementation: Administrative Control and Multiple Participation

(Abstract)

Wang Shizong and Yang Fan

Grassroots policy implementation is an important link in China’s governance practice. Previous studies have analyzed the causes of divergence from policy goals or distorted implementation from the perspective of administrative control, or explored the impact of informal institutions on policy processes from the perspective of policy mobilization. However, both perspectives incline to static or fragmentary analysis and tend to be confined within the bureaucracy, ignoring the government’s mobilization of society. Our case study analysis of County T in Province Z shows that people engaged in implementing grassroots policy can develop varying mobilization strategies on the basis of different combinations of administrative control and social mobilization capacity. In the course of policy implementation, the boundaries and relationships between hierarchical control and social mobilization and between government departments and grassroots society can evolve according to the requirements of policy performance. This implementation process is generally expressed as “adaptive social mobilization.” Our findings could lead to a rethinking of the nature of social governance in contemporary China and explain the paradox of the simultaneous strengthening of administrative control and social participation.

Keywords: grassroots governance, administrative control, social mobilization, policy implementation