Rebuilding Authority: The Party's Relationship with Its Grassroots Organizations

Mittelstaedt, Jean Christopher

Abstract

While existing scholarship looks at the relationship between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and emerging social strata and civil society, the Party's impact on its own grassroots has been largely overlooked. How does the Party manage its own grassroots members? I argue that the CCP has ritualized its management practices in recent years. Drawing from a dataset of 1,408 “Thematic Party Days” (TPDs) conducted by grassroots Party branches in Beijing, I show how such practices are geared towards integrating ordinary Party members with the Party centre in Beijing and the Party in general. This reflects a major shift in the Party's organizational strategy, moving away from embracing market values and towards reproducing the Party's values and ideology at the grassroots.

Citation

Mittelstaedt, J. C. (2021). Rebuilding Authority: The Party's Relationship with Its Grassroots Organizations. The China Quarterly, 248(S1), 244-264. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305741021000746

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 16, 2021
• Publication Date: Sep 23, 2021
• Deposit Date: Feb 14, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 14, 2025
• Journal: The China Quarterly
• Print ISSN: 0305-7410
• Electronic ISSN: 1468-2648
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 248
• Issue: S1
• Pages: 244-264
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305741021000746
• Keywords: Chinese Communist Party (CCP); grassroots governance; institutionalization; Party building
• Publisher URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/china-quarterly/article/rebuilding-authority-the-partys-relationship-with-its-grassroots-organizations/CE4C4DD260F5957E0833BB4B970531B3