Chinese Journal of Sociology ›› 2012, Vol. 32 ›› Issue (4): 164-193.

• Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

The Accountability System in the Grassroots Petition Governance: The Practical Logic and Realistic Dilemma：A Case Study of Town Qiao, MidHubei Province

TIAN Xianhong   

  1. School of Humanities and Law,Nanchang Hangkong University
  • Online:2012-07-20 Published:2012-07-20
  • Contact: TIAN Xianhong, School of Humanities and Law,Nanchang Hangkong University E-mail:tianxh1108@yahoo.com.cn
  • Supported by:

    This study was supported by the project “The Research on Improving the Petition Governance System in Rural Areas in the Background of Harmonious Society”（10YJCZH142）, which was granted by Humanities and Social Science of Ministry of Education, and “The Research on the Problem and Countermeasure of Rural Private Teachers Petition in Jiangxi Province”(11YB377), which was granted by the Education Science Planning Project of Jiangxi Province.

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Abstract:

Taking Town Qiao as an example, this paper employs the analytic triarchical relational framework of the state, local government, and peasants to explain the practical logic and realistic dilemma of the accountability system in the petition governance at the rural grassroots. My study has discovered that, although the accountability system may strengthen the responsibility awareness of the cadres and solve the problem in the petition governance to some extent, three contradictions between the monitoring environment and the spatial separation, the monitoring techniques and the social basis, the monitoring intensity and the ethical pressure have pushed this system into a dilemma, which have produced more and more goaldisplacement behaviors that deviate from the original intention of this system. The implementation of the accountability system reflects the state power penetrating rural society. The inefficiency of the accountability system indicates the dilemma of the state power when it enters rural society. The state power tries to achieve the goal of strengthening the oneonone monitoring of the petitioners via the accountability system. It is very difficult for the state to control the scattered petitioners in a rural society on the move; on the other hand, the petitioners can effectively evade the discipline of the state and occupy the driving position when they are dealing with the rural grassroots agents. On this basis, this article explains three paradoxes in the operation of the Chinese bureaucracy  rational bureaucracy and irrational operation, specialization and synthesis, routine operation and unconventional tasks. The article also gives a theoretical explanation for them. This study emphasizes that the longstanding and widespread paradox of namereality separation in the Chinese grassroots power operation is not only the result of the game of all actors in the bureaucracy or a problem of organizational excitation, but also is birthed by bureaucracy combined with rural society. Thus, we should not only limit to the institutional construction level but we also must consider whether the social basis and institutional environment exist to support a modern government at the grassroots.

Key words: the accountability system, bureaucracy, petition governance, practical logic, realistic dilemma