|
Abstract In recent years， the functional focus of urban grassroots governments (subdistricts) had shifted from economic development to public services and social governance， which has made governance innovation the work requirement and important performance of grassroots governments. Considering performance competitions or the completion of management tasks， subdistricts usually adopt the strategy of focusing on the construction of a small number of “star communities”， which results in the phenomenon of “similar highlights” of governance innovation. That is contrary to the original intention of the state to encourage innovation to improve the governance performance. Through the organizational mechanism of the “selection competition”， N Subdistrict in W City encourages communities within its jurisdiction to “race to the top” in governance innovation， promotes the popularization of governance innovation， achieves the goal of encouraging community governance innovation， and promotes the relatively balanced development of communities. This paper reveals the internal mechanisms of the “selection competition”， including the selection of innovation organizations without threshold， random selection， and equal opportunity. The “selection competition” uses four mechanisms of administrative empowerment， comparative selection， resource attraction and improved training to stimulate communities. Furthermore， this paper discusses the reasons for the deployment of the “selection competition” mechanism： the cognition of subjects， the pressure to achieve balanced development， the accessibility of goals and the sustainability of innovation， all of which affect the decision-making of subdistricts. This paper expands the theoretical discussion of the “tournament mechanism” and further opens the “dark box” of the organizational mechanism of grassroots governments to encourage governance innovation of communities.
|
|
Received: 30 January 2023
|
|
|
|
2023, Vol. 62 
