Mechanism Deconstruction and Pathway Optimization of Public Cultural Services Empowering Modern Community Governance an Empirical Study Based on Jiangsu Province

In the modernization of China’s national governance system and governance capacity, community governance faces practical challenges such as insufficient resident participation, a single governance entity, and weak cultural cohesion. This study takes Jiangsu Province, a pioneer in public cultural development, as the research object and applies a mixedmethods approach combining questionnaire surveys and in-depth interviews. The survey covers 13 cities in Jiangsu Province and obtains 2,864 valid samples, while interviews involve 62 community workers, cultural volunteers, and residents. Based on the theoretical framework of “resource integration-stakeholder collaboration-value shaping,” the study systematically examines the internal mechanisms and optimization pathways through which public cultural services empower modern community governance. The findings show that public cultural services affect community governance through three core mechanisms: resource integration, stakeholder collaboration, and value shaping. The survey uses perceived governance quality as the evaluative indicator for community governance outcomes. Survey indicators for public cultural services and governance outcomes show stable associative patterns. Among them, alignment between cultural service supply and demand shows a strong association with governance outcomes, with r = 0.72 and p < 0.01, while residents’ willingness to participate also shows a strong association, with r = 0.68 and p < 0.01.