Abstract：As for the interpretation of the changes of village governance structure in China，the analysis of village governance in previous studies is mostly based on the duality in the process of state-building：the state and society. As a result，village governance is distorted as the antagonism and conflict between the two forces of the state and society. The rethinking of village governance should focus on the long history and bring village governance into the context of state governance. Taking “state-building” and “localization” as the analysis framework，this paper proposes to conduct a hierarchical analysis of the relationship among the three levels，namely “center and border”， “central goverment and local government” and “state and grass-roots society”. As such， the transformation of China’s village governance structure based on historical continuity shall be established，and the current village governance structure shall be taken as the result of long-term development，gradual improvement and evolution on the grounds of historical inheritance.
2021, Vol. 60 
