Page 9 - 《社会》2022年第5期

社会·2022·5

“administrative outsourcing” that refers to the assignment of public affairs by the
imperial state to social groups （e.g.， clans and guilds） or individuals （local
gentry） outside the government system. In this administrative outsourcing process，
the social groups or individuals certified as subcontractors enjoy certain privileges
and honors， or even semi鄄public identities， but at the same time are subjected to
government supervision and hierarchical control， which is different from market鄄
based outsourcing. In contrast， internal administrative subcontracting involves the
higher鄄level government assigning public affairs or other government targets to the
lower鄄level government in a subcontracting way. This study focuses on the
correspondence between the features of state governance in the domains such as
resource extraction， regime stability maintenance， local public goods provision，
and internal civil internal order （e.g.， clans and guilds）， and the specific modes
of administrative outsourcing. By so doing， the underlying mechanism of state鄄
society interactions in the Chinese imperial system is uncovered. We argue that the
specific modes of administrative outsourcing are determined by tradeoffs between
governance risks and administrative costs associated with specific governance
domains as well as the fiscal constraints of the state. As a result of such tradeoffs，
we have observed a spectrum of governance modes of administrative outsourcing
varying in combinations of government control and civil autonomy across governance
domains. For instance， in high governance risk domains such as resource extraction
and social order maintenance（taxation and public security）， numerous local semi鄄
public agents were designated as subcontractors under strong controls from the
government. For the domain of local civil order with relatively low governance risk
but potentially high administrative costs if the government would exercise direct
controls， civic organizations such as clans， guilds， and merchant clubhouses were
offered a high degree of autonomy over their internal affairs with only contingent
interferences from the government. This paper suggests a new notion of“one body，
many faces” to recapitulate the overall nature of the state鄄society relationship of
imperial China， to offer a new analytical framework to reconcile diverse theoretical
characterizations existing in literature， and to help understand the paradoxical
combination of the unity of state power and the pluralism of state governance in the
Chinese imperial system.
Keywords：state鄄society relations， administrative outsourcing， traditional state
governance， imperial China

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