Transformation beyond Matter-of-factness: Action Strategies and Explanations for Effective Responses of Grassroots Governments in Megacities to Demands

The governance of megacities is an important component of China's national governance. Improving the responsiveness of grassroots governments in megacities is conducive to building a service-oriented government centered on individual well-being. The “Swift Response to Public Complaints” mechanism, originating in Beijing, China's capital, is a significant reform innovation aimed at improving the responsiveness of grassroots governments—that is, efficiently responding to public demands—through the 12345 hotline. This reform has received high attention from the central government and has been promoted nationwide. However, with the nationwide rollout of the “Swift Response to Public Complaints” mechanism, driven by the 12345 citizen hotline, many local practices have faced a structural dilemma of being “busy but ineffective”. The theoretical community has two competing research paths: “increasing” and “decreasing” the intensity of response, leading to a dilemma.

This paper introduces a typological analytical framework based on the attributes of demands, and examines the internal process of effective response by grassroots governments in megacities using a case study of D Street in Beijing. The results show that, based on the interaction of demands based on “publicness-rationality” grassroots governments differentiate into four action strategies: service optimization, substantive resolution, emotional reassurance, and decentralization of consultation.

This paper further derives a theoretical explanation of “transformative response”: as an open system constantly interacting with its environment, rational grassroots government organizations view the large-scale public demands within their jurisdiction as a multi-layered system with positive and negative externalities. By linking the handling of these demands with multiple basic governance functions, they transform them from governance burdens and tasks into positive elements such as governance resources and leverage points, thereby restoring the grassroots governance ecosystem. This process ultimately reduces the likelihood of demands arising at their source, alleviates pressure from demands and offsets institutional pressure, and achieves coordination rather than suppression with other governance efforts. This situation is more pronounced in the context of megacities. In this respect, a short-sighted, pragmatic response lacking transformative response may be a deep-seated reason for the “inefficient results” of grassroots governance in megacities.

Therefore, this paper suggests achieving a balanced response from two aspects: diversion from higher levels and transformation at the grassroots level. This paper's theoretical contributions include incorporating the attributes of demands into research on grassroots government responsiveness and proposing the theoretical concept of “transformational response”, thus enriching current theoretical work. Furthermore, this paper offers a practical action path for shifting government responsiveness from a short-term perspective to a long-term one.