| Currently,digital transformation is a frontier topic in the world.Driven by top-down deployment and bottom-up innovation and exploration,China’s digital transformation of primary-level governance is accelerating.Many practical innovations not only promote the efficiency of governance,but also constantly drive the transformation of governance mode.This path contains the political logic with Chinese characteristics and the corresponding approach of technical governance.On the one hand,technical governance with digitalization plays an important role in the current practice at primary-level governance in China.It drives the optimization of primary-level governance system and the improvement of governance capacity.On the other hand,during the primary-level governance practice of China,the choice of technical governance approach is subject to the political system arrangement with Chinese characteristics.A tension between the technology and institution,meanwhile,is embedded in the digital transformation of the primary-level governance.It is necessary to study the challenges and problems in this issue.In short,there is a paradox of technical governance in the current digital transformation of primary-level governance in China: on the one hand,people perceive that technical governance with digitalization gets rid of the defects of traditional governance,such as promoting the efficiency of governance through technology empowerment and capacity improvement;On the other hand,we have also noticed that the current primary-level technical governance practice has encountered many problems and challenges,and there are many limitations that are difficult to breakthrough.For example,technical governance has led to fragmentation and intensified involution,and is subject to institutional transformation.Therefore,how to solve the paradox of technical governance and explore the high-quality development of digital transformation at primary-level governance requires profound study.So the digital transformation of primary-level governance was chosen as the study object.In this study,it tries to answer two questions through systematic analysis of theory and practice study: Firstly,what is the essence of the digital transformation at primary-level governance in China? Why we need to transform? What problems should be solved in digital transformation? What kind of political logic does the digital transformation at primary-level governance contain?Secondly,how to breakthrough the paradox of digital technical governance in practice and find the technical path matching the transformation logic,aiming to promote the effectiveness of technical governance and implement the digital transformation with high-quality? Therefore,the dissertation focuses on the existing problems in the digital transformation at primary-level governance,and mainly based on the perspective of political science.The logic of this dissertation is based on the interaction of state capacity,governmental governance,and primary-level governance.Using structure-process-function as the analytical framework and the method of case study on G town in Hangzhou,the dissertation attempts to explain the structural logic,process logic and functional logic of the digital transformation at primary-level governance in China through systematical analysis and elaborates on the technical approach to promote the digital transformation at primary-level governance.After defining the key concept of digital transformation at primary-level governance and reviewing theories of digital governance,technical governance,integrated governance,the dissertation establishes the analytical framework of structure-process-function.Then,an analysis on the political logic of the digital transformation at primary-level governance with its technical method is offered by case study.The detailed contents are as follows:Firstly,this dissertation focuses on the structural adjustment of the digital transformation at primary-level governance.Firstly,it analyzes the structural problem from the perspectives of inner governmental relationships and governance at the primary level,aiming to explain the tension between the bureaucratic logic and the logic of bottom-up social governance.And it mentions that a good interaction amongst state will,governmental governance and the society should be formed by the structural reform of primary-level governance.Then,it points out that structural logic of the digital transformation at primary-level governance lies in three facets: coordinating the structural tension between the state will and governmental governance;optimizing the relationship between the primary-level governance capacity and social development;integrating the information capacity of the state and multiple actors’ participation.Considering the experience of G town,the empirical analysis indicates that the path of digital transformation at primary-level governance is dependent upon the provincial impetus,which offers an institutional insurance for the integrated arrangement of primary-level governance.The technical support provides the base of smart governance for structural reform.Secondly,the dissertation focuses on how to optimize the process of the digital transformation of primary-level governance.The primary-level governance process in China is led by government governance to promote social governance transformation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China.So this chapter takes the digital transformation of governmental governance process as the core study object.Specifically,from the analysis on the governmental governance process,some problems were pointed out,such as task addition and duty evasion during the responsibility transfer process,dispersed resources were given to primary-level organizations during the resource transfer process,and involution to collusion in the information transfer process.These problems reveal that the key to the success of digital transformation of the governmental governance process is to stimulate the vitality of primary-level governance through the clarification of the relationship between powers and responsibilities,promote the allocation of resources to enhance the synergy of primary-level governance,and simplify the process to deal with the complexity.Finally,combining with the practice and exploration of G town,a process technical approach for digital transformation of primary-level governance is proposed.It focuses on improving the accuracy of powers and responsibility through digital platform integration and module management,strengthening the coordination among departments under the guideline of defined situations and tasks,and realizing data driven decision-making in the process redesign to deal with the complex governance problems.Finally,this dissertation focuses on the functional improvement in the digital transformation at primary-level governance.Firstly,the relationship between the function realization of primary-level governance and digital transformation is given in depth.It pointed out that the digital transformation at primary-level governance is facing some problems such as lack of systematization,refinement,and symbiosis.It is manifested as the limited capacity of the government for vertical and horizontal intergration.Furthermore,the lack of effective governance with high quality and high efficiency,the unstable governance framework of joint construction,governance and sharing are also showed.The essence to solve these problems is releasing the primary-level governance capacity through technological empowerment,improving efficiency to achieve refined governance,and building a joint construction community of primary-level governance through value and scene creation.To sum up,this dissertation summarizes that there is a close relationship between the technical approach of the digital transformation at primary-level governance and the political logic.The political logic is the internal unity of the will of the party,the state,and the existing logic of primary-level governance.It not only contains the general political requirements of the party and the state,but also includes the practical problems and internal contradictions that must be faced at primary-level governance.These contradictions are also the key challenges faced by primary-level governance,and the political logic of digital transformation provides one of the solutions.This dissertation introduces some new insights.First,the digital function of primary-level governance does not necessarily require complete changes in structure and process.The practice of primary-level governance shows that it is indeed beneficial for the people by showing the intelligent service scene through direct digital empowerment,but at the same time,the burden of primary-level organization is further aggravated due to the unchanged structure and process.Second,structural adjustment does not mean the substantive change of the whole governance system,but the primary-level governance process is the decisive factor.Because the governance process is essentially a kind of collaboration,the way of organizational collaboration is unchanged,so the change of structure cannot completely make a decisive effect.Third,in the digital transformation of primary-level governance led by government governance,the structural adjustment is determined or forced by the corresponding functional needs;the realization of building structured functionalities is determined by the process;the process and functionalities complement each other.Simple primary-level empowerment is only the accumulation of technologies that address the symptoms instead of the root causes,which may eventually lead to the paradox of reducing the burden of the primary-level organizations.However,if the process adjustment is lack of clear definition or creation of functions,it will also fail to achieve the transformation goal of primary-level governance.Fourth,the digital transformation of primary-level governance cannot success without the support of high-quality technical governance.In the process of promoting the digital transformation of primary-level governance,we should deeply understand and make good use of various governance technologies,adhere to the integrated application of digital technology and social technology,and achieve the high-quality and sustainable development of digital technical governance by integrating technology and governance with balancing security and development,technology and humanity,formality and informality,long-term and short-term. |
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