Abstract:

Grid management is a policy tool originating from local practices. After years of diffusion and innovation, it has become the infrastructure of China’s grassroots governance. Its essence lies in leveraging information technology to divide grassroots public affairs into grid patterns. Grid management can break down departmental barriers, achieve vertical integration, and shift the focus of governance downward. Through assessment and accountability, it can also implement responsibilities with a unique operational mechanism to better achieve social management and public service goals. The emergence of grid management has not only significantly influenced the basic forms of public affairs governance such as bureaucracy and social networks, but it has also injected new elements into those Chinese-style governance methods. Thus, grid management directly affects the modernization of China’s state governance. Although grid management is essentially a product of the positive transformation of the hierarchical system, it does produce some negatives, such as unreasonable responsibilities and accountability, the squeezing-out of the rights of some groups, and compressing social autonomy. However, with further innovation and development, grid management could significantly aid the process of modernizing state governance in China.

Key words: grid management, bureaucracy, network governance, digital era