Social brokers in grassroots governance: The new rural gentry in China

Abstract

One important and interesting aspect of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) efforts to revitalize the Chinese countryside in recent years has been the attempt to make use of prominent local people – known as xinxiangxian (新乡贤, meaning ‘new rural meritorious people’). As social brokers, xinxiangxian differ from other agents. The attributes of this new class have yet to be regularized through central government statute, which means that the CCP’s position on the xinxiangxian is still under discussion. From the example of A county, we conclude that xinxiangxian use their abundance of bridging social capital to fulfil two important political functions: lobbying their communities in favour of government policies to strengthen grassroots ruling and serving as local government supervisors to monitor village committee affairs. Compared with other brokers included into the CCP regime, xinxiangxian, as their name suggests, are renowned for their moral values and competencies, allowing them to make a significant contribution to the CCP’s governance of Chinese society.