Abstract: To accurately understand the legislative power of districted cities  regarding "primary level governance", it is necessary to clarify the core demands of primary-level governance in the context of promoting the modernization of primary- level governance in contemporary China. In the context of Chinese modernization,  the connotation of primary-level governance embodies three core demands:  publicity, local initiative, and government- society interaction. The publicity demand sets the goal for the order supply of primary-level governance. The local initiative  demand indicates the necessity of endowing local areas with sufficient institutional  formation space to fully mobilize local initiative and enable them to handle local  affairs in light of local conditions. The government-society interaction demand  points out the core task of innovating primary-level governance methods, that is, to  achieve a virtuous interaction between the government and primary-level society. Based on the positioning of the rule of law as a guarantor in primary-level  governance, the legislation of districted cities should focus on safeguarding  autonomy rights and implement the concept of legislative restraint to avoid  excessive penetration of administrative power into the primary-level society. Under the guidance of Party building, the legislation of districted cities should play a  guaranteeing role by focusing on streamlining, guiding, and cultivating. Districted cities can make great achievements in legislation in terms of  eliminating the institutional drawbacks of “fragmentation of departments,  imbalance of power and responsibility, and dispersion of resources", clarifying the  power-responsibility relationships of the main participants in primary-level  governance, guiding social organizations to participate in governance and primary-level deliberation and consultation in an orderly manner, optimizing grid-based  management, and expanding primary-level democratic practices.  

Key Words: Primary-level Governance; legislation of Districted Cities; Community Autonomy; Grid-based Management; Chinese Modernization

Author: Wang Yi, associate senior editor, CASS Institute of Law;

Source: 3 (2025) Peking University Law Journal.