County Town Power Game

Under the backdrop of a bustling metropolis, China's small county towns generally give people the impression of being backward and dim, even evoking a sense of simplicity that feels far removed from the urban hustle and bustle. In fact, these small towns, distant from power, have long been shrouded in a kind of closed darkness. The officials in these remote towns often adopt a posture of being local tyrants behind closed doors. Of course, seeking benefits in such a small area is not something one person can achieve; the intricate web of interests is evident everywhere in these towns. In corners where sunlight does not reach, the shadows of usury and gambling fill the air, but the power structure in these isolated towns has long since solidified, making it no easy task to find light.

From the influential actors currently involved in county governance, at least the following types of actors can be identified: leaders, ordinary cadres, businessmen, thugs, stubborn households, and ordinary citizens.

Counties are governance arenas with complete elements. The party and government departments of a district or county generally mirror the structures of municipal, provincial, and national levels, with similar functions but differing authorities. Moreover, at the county level, there is also a complete system of people's congresses and political consultative conferences, so a county can be seen as a miniature "nation," representing the most complete grassroots governance arena.

Secondly, the county level and below are the specific subjects of policy implementation. Most policies issued by the central government are sent to the province, which then forwards them to the municipal level, and the municipal level usually forwards them to the county party and government departments. At the county level, there is basically no possibility of further delegating tasks as "hands-off managers"; they become the main body responsible for implementing policies. Of course, these policies will also be further forwarded to the towns, but at the county level, specific planning and guidance are already required to coordinate towns to complete tasks.

Thirdly, below the county level, researchers can observe a larger audience for policies and the interaction process between party and government departments and the public. Some scholars emphasize the importance of rural areas as a field for interaction between the state and farmers, but in the current grassroots governance environment in China, the individual differences among village cadres in rural areas are too large and too micro to serve as units of analysis for the state. There was a time when many researchers believed that towns were more meaningful for state-society interaction, but research focused on town areas cannot examine the formal internal operational processes of the bureaucratic system. Therefore, in analyzing the interaction between the state and society, the county may be a more appropriate space.

Thus, counties (districts) are comprehensive and effective fields for studying the processes and characteristics of governance in China, and the unique significance of county governance to Chinese politics and administration is irreplaceable.

How to Study a County: Perspectives and Methods
Currently, a county often involves nearly a million people, including urban and rural areas, dozens of directly affiliated party and government agencies, and numerous towns. There are often significant differences between towns in terms of economic development levels, industrial forms, and other aspects, even in language. So, how do we investigate a county and understand its governance? In the field of county surveys, fixed county surveys have always been a benchmark, but their content boundaries are relatively defined, focusing on social conditions, including geography, history, government and community, population, education, health and sanitation, rural entertainment, customs, beliefs, taxation, finance, agriculture, industry and commerce, rural lending, disasters, and military disasters. Overall, this is a record of basic county conditions, which was extremely valuable at the time, but under current conditions of information transmission, storage, and dissemination, different requirements for county surveys should be established. Therefore, distinguishing from fixed county surveys that focus more on social conditions, the characteristics and advantages of this series of research works are more reflected in the following perspectives and methods:

First, the perspective of governance. In Chinese expression, the term "governance" is vague, but after years of application, both academia and practice have reached a certain consensus on the term. First, it points more towards a top-down process, emphasizing the subjectivity and initiative of governance actors. In the current Chinese context, it emphasizes the subject role and proactive awareness of party and government departments. Secondly, it points more towards a multi-participation process, meaning the interaction of different actors, including party and government departments, social organizations, enterprises, and residents. In this series of works, starting from the perspective of governance means that we will pay more attention to the top-down process, focusing on the actions of county party and government departments while also paying attention to the roles of multiple subjects in the governance process.

Second, from the perspective of organizational research. As mentioned above, county governments are important governance subjects in county governance, and understanding them is fundamental to understanding county governance. However, existing research on local governments in China mostly still accepts the basic assumptions of holistic government, meaning that research on a certain department or level of local government represents the overall local party and government. For example, research on township governments is used to infer local government or even the state, and research on finance or local tax bureaus is used to represent local government’s economic development intentions and directions. In this research series, we hope to cut into multiple departments and organizational units within the county party and government system, starting from understanding the operations of different party and government departments, examining the overall policy process, analyzing the specific operations of these organizations, and how these operations collectively or individually influence governance effectiveness and the well-being of the public.

Third, from the perspective of a county party secretary. Even if we limit our research focus to the party and government departments in county governance, we still face a large research object. A county involves dozens of party and government departments, each with its own organizational structure, functions, positions, and policy processes, which are sufficient to fill a book. How to appropriately narrow the scope? In-depth interviews with leaders of county governance during the research process remind us to try to take on the role of the county party secretary and think about what the main concerns are when a county party secretary takes office in a county as the core decision-maker.

From this perspective, we can roughly determine the relevant content of county surveys. First, it should be the basic county conditions of the jurisdiction, including spatial and geographical characteristics, population quantity and structure, social customs and local cultural characteristics, economic development and fiscal structure, etc., to understand the governance object and adopt corresponding governance strategies. After fully understanding the basic county conditions, we need to understand the main leverage points of county governance, which may generally include the following content:

Organization. A county party secretary's guarantee of good work is to have a usable and efficient team, which is the "human" issue in county governance. This includes the composition, functions, positions, staffing, and allocation of power resources of county party and government departments, as well as the cooperation and competition among these departments.
Economy and finance. This refers to the "money" issue in county governance, including the local economic foundation and industrial structure; how to develop the local economy, how to increase tax revenue and fiscal income, etc., as well as how to spend money, in what ways to spend, and where the main expenditures are.
Law enforcement or enforcement. In county governance, many departments have law enforcement powers, including public security departments, urban management departments, market supervision departments, etc. In fact, most departments have more or less law enforcement powers, and these law enforcement powers play an important role in different targets of county governance. A county party secretary often needs to have a full understanding of the law enforcement forces in their jurisdiction.
Ideology and culture or ideology. This includes the ideological and political study of the party and the state, local culture and education, as well as how to optimize social integration through ideology, culture, education, etc., to achieve good governance in the county, which is also an important leverage point in county governance.
Public service supply. The process and effectiveness of public service supply are the most important components of county governance performance and the core content of county politics, especially under the current premise of increasing emphasis on people's livelihood issues by the party and the state, public service has become a concern for county party secretaries.
Technical governance. The widespread application of technical governance first arose in mega cities and large cities, but in many counties in our country, various technologies have also begun to be adopted and applied. In an administrative structure with a high degree of rigidity in administrative resources and staffing, technical governance is often expected by county governance decision-makers to help break rigid constraints and achieve upgrades in management models and efficiency. These technologies may be used for supervision, economy, service, or merely created out of the need for performance innovation, but this is a new situation currently occurring in county governance.

Fourth, the perspective of structure, process, and events. Researching an entire county or even a specific department involves complex content. How should these contents be organized and presented? In this series of works, we can generally summarize our narrative approach as "structure, process, and events." For a county, we try to first describe its basic county conditions, striving to present to readers the state and characteristics of a county as an actor's stage, and then analyze the main and supporting roles and events on this stage.

For the dimensions of organization, economy, law enforcement, and other content, we also try to approach from structure (the basic administrative structure and static introduction of major actors around this theme), process (the flow trajectory of a task or work in the aforementioned structure, including agenda setting, interaction during decision-making, execution process, and corresponding consequences), and events (those most significant, important stories that reflect the above structure and process). We hope to use this narrative approach to avoid county research works merely becoming a "running account."