Social Forces and Street-level Governance in Shanghai: From Compliance to Participation in Recycling Regulations

Abstract

This article interrogates the operating logic of China’s street-level regulatory state, demonstrating that Residents’ Committees (RCs) assume a role as regulatory intermediaries to enhance the efficiency of local governance. Using Shanghai’s new recycling regulations as a case study, it explores the mechanisms by which RCs elicit not only citizens’ compliance but also active participation. We show that the central mechanisms derive from RCs’ skilful mobilisation of the social forces, namely mianzi and guanxi, that are produced within close-knit social networks inside Shanghai’s housing estates (xiaoqu). We advance three arguments in the study of China's emerging regulatory state. First, we show how informal social forces are employed in regulatory governance at the street level, combine authoritarian control with grass-roots participation. Second, the focus on RCs as regulatory intermediaries reveals the important role played by these street-level administrative units play in policy implementation. Third, we suggest that the RC’s harnessing of informal social forces is essential not only for the successful policy implementation at the street level, but also for the production of the local state’s political legitimacy.