Changes in the Society at the Grassroots Level in China

At the Central Political and Legal Work Conference held in early 2019, General Secretary Jinping Xi put forward clear requirements on social governance, which are “to establish a social governance pattern where the society is constructed, managed and shared by all and to create a social governance community where everyone takes responsibility and meets their duty”. It marked that the grassroots social governance officially started a stage of “governance by multiple actors” and was measured by “social effectiveness”, with the ultimate goal of “building a grassroots social governance community”. The basic pattern is a new regime of urban and rural grassroots governance with self-governance organizations as the main body and extensive participation of all parties from the society. How it was determined and evolved did not happen overnight or go to press without proof. To understand the changes in the grassroots (Grassroots governments refer to township governments. Village units and subdistricts are considered to be part of the grassroots government.) governance regime over the past seven decades, and learn about what are the external and internal dynamics of those changes, deserve further exploration.