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Flexible Governance: Petition, Disputes and Citizen’s Rights Protection in Contemporary China

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Human Dignity, Human Rights, and Social Justice

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Abstract

Blamed as a major threat to an effective judiciary, Xinfang not only often fails to resolve social disputes between the petitioners and the Party-state in the authoritarian regime but also exacerbates the conflict. Using two cases of Shanghai, this chapter shows that the innovative mechanism of involving petition social workers (PSWs) in settling disputes is a kind of “flexible governance” (FG) stressing affective care and the use of multi-pronged means of dispute resolution to relieve petition pressure and maintain social stability by the authoritarian state. Facing the surge and intensification of social conflict in recent years, “flexible governance” reflects the corporatist relations between social organizations and the local state with the state’s intensive political control over the society.

This chapter is a revised version of the original article “Flexible Governance in China: Affective Care, Petition Social Workers, and Multi-Pronged Means of Dispute Resolution” appeared in Asian Survey (58: 4) 2018: 679–703.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This paper uses the terms “petition” and “Xinfang” interchangeably, hereafter.

  2. 2.

    Minzner [18].

  3. 3.

    Hu and Zheng [12].

  4. 4.

    Hu [10], Su [25], Chen and Kang [2].

  5. 5.

    Lee and Zhifen [15], You and Qianmin [29].

  6. 6.

    Manning [16].

  7. 7.

    Goldstone and Tilly [6].

  8. 8.

    Pratchett [20].

  9. 9.

    Cai [1].

  10. 10.

    Reuschemeyer and Evans [22].

  11. 11.

    Dahl [3], Diamond [5].

  12. 12.

    Migdal [17], Unger and Chan [27], Schmitter [24].

  13. 13.

    Saich [23].

  14. 14.

    Landry [14].

  15. 15.

    Hu [11].

  16. 16.

    Teets [26].

  17. 17.

    Hu and Zheng [12].

  18. 18.

    Perry [19].

  19. 19.

    Reamer [21].

  20. 20.

    Government of the Republic of China [7].

  21. 21.

    Source: From the authors’ field work in 2014, Shanghai. For privacy all the names of the petitioners and the PSWs are pseudonyms.

  22. 22.

    Source: K District Statistical Yearbook [13].

  23. 23.

    Data collected from the field work.

  24. 24.

    Cai [1].

  25. 25.

    SWOT analysis aims to identify the key internal (the strengths and weaknesses internal to the organization) and external factors (the opportunities and threats presented by the environment external to the organization) important to achieving objectives before contacting the petitioners, see Hill and Westbrook [8].

  26. 26.

    Diamant and O’Brien [4].

  27. 27.

    Veterans [28].

  28. 28.

    Diamant and O’Brien [4].

  29. 29.

    Hsu and Hasmath [9].

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Law School, Tongji University, Siping Road, Shanghai, 200092, P. R. China

    Jieren Hu

  2. School of Social Development, East China University, Shanghai, P. R. China

    Tong Wu

  3. School of International Relations and Public Affairs, Fudan University, Shanghai, P. R. China

    Jingyang Fei

Authors
  1. Jieren Hu
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  2. Tong Wu
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Correspondence to Jieren Hu .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Shanghai, China

    Zhibin Xie

  2. York, UK

    Pauline Kollontai

  3. Pasadena, CA, USA

    Sebastian Kim

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Hu, J., Wu, T., Fei, J. (2020). Flexible Governance: Petition, Disputes and Citizen’s Rights Protection in Contemporary China. In: Xie, Z., Kollontai, P., Kim, S. (eds) Human Dignity, Human Rights, and Social Justice. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5081-2_6

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