From macro-state to meso-organizing: A sociological review of the transition of Chinese local governments in the past 30 years

Abstract

Studying the transition of Chinese local governments has continuously been the main theme for sociologists since the fiscal, administrative, and market reforms launched in the 1980s. In reference to other countries’ experience, sociological studies about this transition are generally from three macro-theoretical perspectives: Weberian modernity, local transitional state, and local developmental state. However, they have two common problems: first, perceiving the transition as a paradigm shift, not a process; and, second, perceiving local governments as static entities, without internal dynamics. As an alternative, the paper argues that a meso-theoretical perspective should be adopted to inductively study the organization of Chinese local governments in the transitional process. Through exploring the two schools of the meso-organizing perspective—‘structuralism’ and ‘agency with plural institutions’—the paper proposes that sociologists should explore the transition as a dynamic process, an open system, an interaction of ‘structuralism’ and ‘agency with plural institutions’, and with an internal perspective.