Revitalizing the State's Urban “Nerve Tips”*

摘要: While observers of China have always paid attention to the “base-level” administrative institutions and mass organizations created by Communist party-state, urban Residents' Committees (RCs; jumin weiyuanhui) received relatively little study in recent years. Though RCs remain pervasive most areas cities engage energies millions activists volunteers, this neglect is understandable. During Mao era, Western writing on neighbourhood emphasized their role helping police administer harsh political order that gripped cities. In 1980s 1990s, authorities yielded much greater space a private sphere which law-abiding individuals are free from intrusion. Instruments state penetration such as seemed less worthy analysis. They also lack requisite autonomy qualify part an emergent civil society, moreover limited progress serving focus for democratic participation earns them international than rural equivalents, Villagers' Committees. may even seem derision rather study; merely mentioning term juweihui often brings amused smile people's faces, it connotes ageing, officious busy bodies poking into personal matters.