Resource Networks of Power:Contemporary State Capacity and Rural Governance Performance Based on a Study in Village H,Dantu District,Zhenjiang,Jiangsu Province
After the rural tax reform,the rural governance has changed dramatically under the comprehensive role of state capacity.While the resources of the state-led rural governance programs have become more abundant and the power system has been gradually standardized,the performance of governance has not been"ideally"improved;instead,to a certain extent,it has given rise to formalism,bureaucracy,overburdening and other shortcomings at the primary level.In short,under the dual construction of the formal resources of the state,which symbolizes the capacity of the state,and its supporting power,the performance of rural governance tends to diminish marginal returns.Based on the field survey of Village H in Dantu District,Zhenjiang,Jiangsu Province,this study deconstructs state capacity from the dimensions of formal resource provision and formal power embedding.Contemporary state capacity has not only contributed to the formation of rural governance involution,but also further reshaped the interaction between the state and rural society.In the post-agricultural tax era,the state has almost lost the informal cultural network or authoritative resources on which it has long relied to integrate the rural society,and has instead relied on the formal input of allocative resources and its accompanying power embedding,i.e.,the"resource networks of power"to maintain comprehensive integration of the countryside in order to realize the task of modern state governance.Under the influence of the"resource networks of power",the formal resources of the state on which rural governance relies will be abnormally dissipated,as evidenced by the encroachment of profit-sharing groups,the trap of over-investment,and the mismanagement of agents;and the formal power of the state will tend to operate in an instrumentalized manner,as evidenced by the formal institutional capacity,the upward administrative dilemma and the complex cycle of control.This provides a new theoretical perspective for understanding the impact of state capacity in contemporary rural governance.
state capacityrural governanceresource networks of powergovernance performanceformal resource provisionformal power
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