The Challenges of Urbanization and Governance Transition in Urban China

摘要

China's fast urbanization brings record-breaking prosperity to state's modernization, as well as critical challenges to city managers. Since the early 1980s, the government began to reconstruct urban governance structure and promote community development in grass-root level. Neighborhood agency was granted with more enforcement power, funds and responsibilities. So far, a community service system for urban residents has taken initial shape, which is made up of pure public services supported by district government and neighborhood agency, social services supported by community-based non-profit organizations, and commercial services supported by private sectors. Market mechanism is efficiency for meeting residents' needs for diversified community services, simultaneously, the immoderate expansion of market and excessive pursuit of commercial benefits do great harm to residents. The author discusses the need for a new system of "two-level government, three-level-management".