Based on fieldwork in rural areas of Hubei, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Sichuan, Henan and other provinces, this book adopts a stateness and locality analytical framework to systematically study the process and mechanism of shaping peasant petitions by the state, revealing the relationship between the state and farmers in contemporary China. It tries to explore the deep code of state governance, describe the characteristics of China's state, and summarize the micro-experience and mechanism of state construction. This book tries to put forward the path of state building with "compound country" and holds that contemporary China is a compound country with both tradition and modernity. On the one hand, the state is increasingly focusing on the introduction and creation of modern governance rules; on the other hand, traditional rules still play an important role in national governance. More importantly, traditional rules and modern rules are often intertwined to jointly influence the shape of national governance, which not only shapes the "Chinese road" of state building but also adds many uncertain factors to China's path toward a modern state. The most important features and benefits of the book are: 1. The field investigation of this book is in-depth, and the data is relatively solid and systematic. The author explains the interactive relationship between the government (state) and farmers through rich and readable stories of farmers' petitions. 2.This book deeply analyzes the function mechanism of village social structure factors such as clan, faction, and stratum differentiation in farmers' petitions. While paying attention to the interaction process between the state and society, it also pays attention to the function of structural variables, so as to unify the structure and process. 3.From the perspective of the relationship between state power and rural society, this book divides China's rural areas into four types: developed eastern areas, clan areas, family fragmentation areas, and atomized areas. On this basis, it analyzes the regional differences of farmers' petitioning behavior

Autorentext

Xianhong Tian, born in Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province, is a professor and doctoral supervisor of China Institute for Rural Studies/Institute for Advanced Political Science, Central China Normal University. He was selected into the national high-level talents special support program and Central China Normal University "Guizi Scholars" Distinguished Professor support program, and served as the chief expert of the National Social Science Foundation major project. Mainly engaged in grassroots and local governance, rural politics, grassroots petition politics research. His solo book, Governance at the Grassroots Level in China, was named one of the "Top Ten Good Books" and "Excellent Original Academic Works" by Social Sciences Academic Press in 2012. He has won the second prize of provincial social sciences outstanding achievements, China Rural Development Research Award and other scientific research awards. He is also a reviewer of many authoritative journals in Chinese and English, such asJournal of Political Science and Journal of Chinese Governance.