Background: The Source(s) of Rural Political Power and Authority
摘要
In this chapter, the author traces changes in modern Chinese history in the source of power for primary-level political authorities, and looks at the kinds of impact these changes have had on social structure in rural communities. The author hopes to offer an account (albeit a rough one) of this evolutionary process that may serve as the basis of discussions later in the book. This chapter addresses the relationship between the gradual detachment of the primary-level political apparatus from rural communities’ public interest on the one hand and the structural instability caused by such detachment on the other.