Stateness, Locality, and Grassroots Governance

Based on fieldwork in rural areas of Hubei, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Sichuan, Henan and other provinces, this book adopts a stateness and locality analytical framework to systematically study the process and mechanism of shaping peasant petitions by the state, revealing the relationship between the state and farmers in contemporary China. It tries to explore the deep code of state governance, describe the characteristics of China's state, and summarize the micro-experience and mechanism of state construction. This book tries to put forward the path of state building with "compound country" and holds that contemporary China is a compound country with both tradition and modernity. On the one hand, the state is increasingly focusing on the introduction and creation of modern governance rules; on the other hand, traditional rules still play an important role in national governance. More importantly, traditional rules and modern rules are often intertwined to jointly influence the shape of national governance, which not only shapes the "Chinese road" of state building but also adds many uncertain factors to China's path toward a modern state. The most important features and benefits of the book are: 1. The field investigation of this book is in-depth, and the data is relatively solid and systematic. The author explains the interactive relationship between the government (state) and farmers through rich and readable stories of farmers' petitions. 2.This book deeply analyzes the function mechanism of village social structure factors such as clan, faction, and stratum differentiation in farmers’ petitions. While paying attention to the interaction process between the state and society, it also pays attention to the function of structural variables, so as to unify the structure and process. 3.From the perspective of the relationship between state power and rural society, this book divides China's rural areas into four types: developed eastern areas, clan areas, family fragmentation areas, and atomized areas. On this basis, it analyzes the regional differences of farmers' petitioning behavior