Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T17:33:44.045Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Advance of the Party: Transformation or Takeover of Urban Grassroots Society?*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2013

Patricia M. Thornton
Patricia M. Thornton*
Affiliation:
University of Oxford. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

While existing scholarship focuses attention on the impact of state control and repression on Chinese civil society, the increasingly independent role of the Communist Party has been largely overlooked. This article reviews the Party's drive to “comprehensively cover” grassroots society over the previous decade against the theoretical debate unfolding among Chinese scholars and Party theoreticians regarding the Party's role with respect to civil society. Focusing on greater Shanghai, frequently cited as a national model of Party-building, I describe the Party's advance and the emergence of Party-organized non-governmental organizations (PONGOs), a new hybrid form of social organization sponsored and supported by local Party committees. I argue that these developments invite a reconsideration of our understandings of the ongoing “associational revolution” and of the Party's relationship to China's flourishing “third realm.”

Keywords

civil societyChinese Communist PartyNGOsParty buildingurbansocial policyShanghai
Type
Articles
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 213 , March 2013 , pp. 1 - 18
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

An earlier version of this paper was delivered at a University of Oxford Contemporary China Studies Programme conference entitled “Civic Culture, Harmonious Society: Rethinking Civil Society in Greater China Today,” held on 27–28 August 2010 at Jesus College. The author gratefully acknowledges the comments and suggestions offered by conference participants Diana Fu, Karl Gerth, Walter Hatch, Jianyu He, Ming-sho Ho, Michael Hsiao, Winnie King, Qiushi Ma, Vivienne Shue, Sun Tao, Jessica Teets, Xibai Xu and Hong Zhang; and two anonymous reviewers.

References

Appleton, Simon, Knight, John, Song, Lina and Xia, Qingjie. 2009. “The economics of Communist Party membership.” Journal of Development Studies 45 (2), 256–275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dickson, Bruce J. 2007. “Integrating wealth and power in China: the Communist Party's embrace of the private sector.” The China Quarterly 192, 827–854.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dickson, Bruce J. 2008. Wealth Into Power: The Communist Party's Embrace of China's Private Sector. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gold, Thomas B. 1990. “The Resurgence of Civil Society in China.” Journal of Democracy 1 (1), 18–31Google Scholar
Hong, Meifen. 2001. “Shanghai jiceng dangjian shuoguo leilei” (“Innumerable great achievements of Shanghai's grassroots Party-building”). Jiefang ribao, 23 June.Google Scholar
Hood, Christopher. 1973. “The rise and rise of the British QUANGO.” New Society 25, 386–88.Google Scholar
Howell, Jude. 2007. “Civil society in China: chipping away at the edges.” Development 50(3), 17–23.Google Scholar
Hu, Bing. 2007. “Tansuo minjian zuzhi zuijia shengcun huanjing—zhengdang zuzhi dui minjian zuzhi de yingxiang” (“Exploring the optimal environment for grassroots organizations: the influence of the Party organizations on civic organizations”). Xuehui 226 (9), 15.Google Scholar
Kang, Xiaoqiang. 2008. “Minjian zuzhi dangjian de shuangzhong fazhan lujing” (“Two-fold developmental path in Party-building in civic organizations”). Dangzheng luntan 4, 16–17.Google Scholar
Kang, Xiaoguang. 2002. “Zailun ‘xingzheng xina zhengzhi’—90 niandai Zhongguo dalu zhengzhi fazhan yu zhengzhi wending yanjiu” (“Revisiting ‘administrative absorption’: research into the development of mainland Chinese politics in the ’90s and political stability”). Ershiyi shiji (August), 14–30.Google Scholar
Lester, M. Salamon. 1994. “The rise of the nonprofit sector.” Foreign Affairs 73 (4), 109–122.Google Scholar
Lewis, John W., and Litai, Xue. 2003. “Social change and political reform in China: meeting the challenge of success.” The China Quarterly 176, 926–942.Google Scholar
Li, Jingpeng. 2005. “Hou quanneng zhuyi shidai de gongmin shehui” (“Civil society in the post-totalitarian age”). Zhongguo gaige 11, 37.Google Scholar
Lieberthal, Kenneth. 2004. Governing China, From Revolution through Reform. New York: W.W. Norton.Google Scholar
Lin, Shangli. 2007. “Liangzhong shehui jiangou: Zhongguo gongchandang yu feizhengfu zuzhi” (“Two types of social construction: the Chinese Communist Party and NGOs”). Zhongguo feiyingli 1, 4.Google Scholar
Lin, Shangli. 2008. “Minjian zuzhi yu zhengzhi gaige: Zhongguo de luoji” (“Grassroots organizations and political reform: China's logic”). In Ming, Wang (ed.), Zhonggguo minjian zuzhi 30 nian—zouxiang gongmin shehui (Thirty Years of Chinese Grassroots Organizations: Moving toward Civil Society). Beijing: Shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe, 270–73.Google Scholar
Liu, Li. 2009. “Jiaqiang minban feiqiye danwei dangjian gongzuo yanjiu” (“Research into strengthening Party-building work among private non-enterprise units”). Lilun daokan 11, 58.Google Scholar
Lu, Yiyi. 2007. “The autonomy of Chinese NGOs: a new perspective.” China: An International Journal 5 (2), 173–203.Google Scholar
Lu, Yiyi. 2009. Nongovernmental Organizations in China. London: Taylor and Francis.Google Scholar
Lu, Yuemian. 2004. “‘Liangxin’ lingyu dangzuzhi shezhi moshi chuangxin tanxi” (“Exploring new models of establishing Party organizations in the ‘Two News’ domain”). Shanghai dangshi yu dangjian (August), 49–51.Google Scholar
Luo, Feng. 2009. “Shehui zuzhi de fazhan yu zhizheng dang de zuzhi qianru: zhengdang quanwei chongsu de shehui shijiao” (“Social organization development and embedding the ruling Party's organizations within them: remolding society's perspective of the Party-state's authority”). Zhonggong Zhejiang shengwei dangxiao xuebao 4, 31–37.Google Scholar
Luo, Yong. 2009. “Gongyixing minjian zuzhi yu shequ zhili de xianzhuang, kunjing yu zhengce ganyu” (“The current state of public welfare civic groups and community governance, difficulties and policy interventions”). Gaige yu fazhan 4, 80–83.Google Scholar
Ma, Xiheng. 2009. “Minjian zuzhi fazhan yu zhizheng dang jianshe—duiyu Shanghai shi minjian zuzhi dangjian shilu de sikao” (“Developing civic organizations and constructing the ruling party—a reflection on the practice of Party-building in grassroots organizations in Shanghai”). Qiushi 1, 29.Google Scholar
Meng, Qian. 2009. “Changshou moshi: ‘minjian zuzhi fuwu zhongxin’ de shequ chuangxin” (“The Changshou model: creating a resident association's ‘civic organization service centre’”). Shequ 2, 10.Google Scholar
Mertha, Andrew. 2009. “‘Fragmented authoritarianism 2.0’: political pluralization in the Chinese policy process.” The China Quarterly 200, 995–1012.Google Scholar
Pan, Weike. 2004. “Zhongjie zuzhi dangjian gongzuo bu gua ‘kong dang’” (“Party-building work in intermediary organizations is not hanging ‘empty shelves’”). Gongchan dangyuan 12, 22.Google Scholar
Saich, Tony. 2000. “Negotiating the state: the development of social organizations in China.” The China Quarterly 161, 124–141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shambaugh, David. 2008. China's Communist Party: Atrophy and Adaptation. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Shanghai shi Jing'anqu shehui zuzhi lianhehui. 2008. “Jing'anqu shehui zuzhi fazhan zhuangkuang” (“Condition of developing social organizations in Jing'an District”). Original at http://www.shlxhd.gov.cn, 25 November. Accessed 11 August 2011 at http://tinyurl.com/c2uy3tx.Google Scholar
Shanghai shi ziqiang shehui fuwu zongshe. 2009. “Minzhengbu lingdao tingqu ziqiang deng xin shehui zuzhi ‘xueshi huodong’ huibao” (“Ministry of Civil Affair's reception of a report on the self-strengthening, etc., of the ‘study activities’ of new social groups”). 17 December. Accessed at http://tinyurl.com/3yhyp8f.Google Scholar
Shen, Zhenli. 2010. “Guanban cishan” (“State organized charity”). 21 Shiji jingji baodao, 30 April.Google Scholar
Shue, Vivienne. 1988. The Reach of the State: Sketches of the Chinese Body Politic. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Strand, David. 1990. “Protest in Beijing: civil society and public sphere in China.” Problems of Communism 39 (3), 1–19.Google Scholar
Sun, Weilin (ed.). 2009. Shehui zuzhi guanli (Managing Social Organizations). Beijing: Zhongguo shehui chubanshe.Google Scholar
Unger, Jonathan. 1996. “‘Bridges’: private business, the Chinese government and the rise of new associations.” The China Quarterly 174, 795–819.Google Scholar
Wang, Xu. 1999. “Mutual empowerment of state and society: its nature, conditions, mechanisms, and limits.” Comparative Politics 31 (2), 231–249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wang, Guoliang, and Jiaohui, Wang. 2006. “Guanyu jiaqiang dangyuan fuwu zhongxin gongneng jianshe de duice yu jianyi” (“Countermeasures and suggestions on building and strengthening the Party members service centre's functions”). Shanghai dangshi yu dangjian 1, 37–38.Google Scholar
Wang, Shaoguang, and Jianyu, He. 2004. “Zhongguo de shetuan geming – Zhongguo ren de jieshe bantu” (“China's associational revolution: mapping the associational realm of Chinese citizens”). Zheijang xuekan 6, 71–77.Google Scholar
Wu, Hui, and Zhao, Xusheng. 2009. “Jiaqiang dang dui shehui zuzhide lingdao, fahui shehui zuzhi de jiji zuoyong” (“Strengthening the Party's leadership in social organizations, developing their positive functions”). In Guojia minjian zuzhi guanliju, ed., 2008 nian Zhongguo shehui zuzhi lilun yanjiu wenji (Research Essays on the Theory of Social Organizations in China 2008). Beijing: Zhongguo shehui chubanshe, 8–10.Google Scholar
Wu, Xinye. 2006. “Zhizhengdang yu feizhengfu zuzhi: lilun de chaoyue yu xianshi de lujing—yi chaoyue guojia-shehui fanshi de shijiao” (“The ruling Party and NGOs: beyond theory and real means – the view from beyond the state/society dichotomy”). Xueshu luntan 191 (12), 52.Google Scholar
Yan, Hong. 2009. “Jinnian xinshehui zuzhi dangjian yanjiu shuping” (“Review of research on Party-building in new social organizations in recent years”). Xuexi luntan 25 (11), 25.Google Scholar
Yin, Deci. 2004. “Zhongguo minjian zuzhi fazhan yu dang de zhizheng fangshi yanjiu” (“Research into the development of grassroots organizations in China and the Party's governing style”). Tanqiu 150 (3), 9–16.Google Scholar
Yu, Keping. 2006. “Zhongguo gongmin shehui: guainian, fenlei yu zhidu huangjing” (“Chinese civil society: concepts, typology, and system environment”). Zhongguo shehui kexue 1, 14–15.Google Scholar
Zeng, Yonghe. 2008. “Chengshi zhengfu goumai fuwu yu xinxing zhengshe guanxi de goujian” (“The purchase of services by municipal governments and the structure of a new type of state–society relationship”). Tansuo chuangxin 1, A41–43.Google Scholar
Zhong, Zhilei. 2009. “NGO zhuce guanli moshide xin tansuo—yi NPI moshi weili” (“New explorations of the registration and management of NGO model: the NPI model example”). Zhishi jingji 13, 34–35.Google Scholar
Zhonggong zhongyang zuzhibu guanyu yinfa. 2000. “Guanyu ‘Jiaqiang shehui tuanti dang de jianshe gongzuo de yijian’ de tongzhi” (“Notice concerning ‘Opinion on the work of strengthening Party organizations established in social groups’”). http://www.law-lib.com/law/law_view.asp?id=120475, 21 July.Google Scholar
Zhonggong zhongyang zuzhibu, mingzhengbu. 1998. “Guanyu shehui tuanti zhong jianli dangzuzhi youguan wentide tongzhi” (“Notice concerning the problems of building Party organizations in social groups”). http://www.lawlib.com/law/law_view.asp?id=120476, 16 February.Google Scholar
Zhongguo shehui bao 2002. “Shanghai minjian zuzhi dangjian gongzuo xiansheng duoren” (“Overwhelming strength of Party-building in Shanghai's civic organizations”). 25 June. 2.Google Scholar
Hongyun, Zhou. 2009. “Minjian zuzhi fuwu zhongxin bu shi ‘er zhengfu’” (“CSO service centre isn't a “second government”). Shequ 2, 13.Google Scholar
Jiayan, Zhou, ed. 2009. “Hangshi minjian zuzhi dangjian, zujin hexie shehui shequ jianshe” (“Solidify Party-building in civic associations, promote the building of harmonious resident associations”). http://stj.sh.gov.cn/Info.aspx?ReportId=c915ef27-e978-4c2d-8bea-d0a3ff31ec6e, 31 July.Google Scholar
Zhou, Tianyong, et al. 2008. Gongjian: shiqi da hou zhongguo zhengzhi tizhi gaige yanjiu baogao (Storming the Fortress: A Report on post-17th Party Congress Reforms of the Chinese Political System). Xinjiang shengchan jianshe bingtuan chubanshe, 311–12.Google Scholar
Zhou, Yang. 2007. “Jiceng zhengfu zhineng zhuanyi–Shanghai NGO zhili shequ” (“Shifting functions of basic-level government: Shanghai NGO governs resident associations”). Ershiyi shiji jingji baodao 21 (23 November), 4.Google Scholar
Zhu, Xiaohong, 2009. “Analysis of YBC's ‘Rebuild our home entrepreneurship campaign’ – A social enterprise perspective.” The China Nonprofit Review 1, 263–283.Google Scholar