Between Centralization and Delegation: Vertical Intergovernmental Power Interaction in Digital Governance Scenarios

The application of technology in organizational power relations constitutes a core mechanism of digital governance. Existing scholarship tends to analyze this relationship through static structural-functional frameworks. These approaches leave underexplored the dynamic processes through which technology becomes embedded in vertical intergovernmental power interactions. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Chengdu in 2024 and 2025, this study analyzes how municipal, district, and street-level governments interact through the city's three-level Urban Operations Platform. A total of 33 interviews were conducted with officials across all three tiers. Two analytical dimensions are introduced in this study. The first is power mobilization. The second is technology integration. These dimensions yield a four-type classification of digital governance scenarios. The four types are the authority-consolidating scenario, the tiered deployment scenario, the local experimentation scenario, and the autonomous co-construction scenario.

The study finds that higher-level and lower-level governments exhibit a dual logic of centralization and delegation within digital space. Higher-level governments exercise centralization across three key areas. They retain control over cross-jurisdictional governance by aggregating data flows that transcend administrative boundaries. They monopolize risk governance through predictive algorithms and emergency dispatch systems that exceed grassroots capacity. They also strengthen behavioral oversight by generating traceable digital records of lower-level operations across governance tasks. At the same time, higher-level governments delegate selectively. In tiered deployment scenarios, grassroots officials are granted initial handling authority over routine cases. Dynamic authorization mechanisms allow them to claim and process tasks within designated parameters. Jurisdiction over non-standard cases follows a primary-contradiction attribution principle. Higher-level governments retain the right to intervene and resume control when the situation warrants it.

Grassroots governments also exercise centralization. They build fine-grained scenarios by leveraging localized data assets to address needs that higher-level authorities cannot anticipate in advance. Grassroots governments likewise engage in delegation. The Baobiaotong platform illustrates this logic well. Originally an innovation designed to reduce redundant reporting tasks, it gained institutional recognition only after developers aligned it with higher-level technical standards and ceded platform control to upper tiers. Grassroots governments thus trade platform autonomy for legitimacy recognition within the overarching governance architecture. These dynamics together produce a flexible and nested governance structure. Digital governance scenarios serve as the primary medium through which power boundaries are tested, negotiated, and adjusted across levels. This study offers a new analytical lens for understanding power operations in government digital transformation. It advances theoretical discussions on the technology-power relationship in public administration.