Comparison of residents' committees in two Chinese cities: Shanghai and Shenyang

居委会作为街道办事处“派出机构”的角色在客观上已经凌驾于“群众性自治组织”的法律定位之上。相应地， 居委会工作人员在长期担当政府代理人角色的路径依赖之下， 主观上已经把与社区发展息息相关的日常政务工作建构为社区内部事务。因此， 社区建设的实质是基层社会治理结构的建设， 它需要国家力量给基层社会的自我运作让渡出一定的空间， 而要实现这一目标， 关键性的基本前提是政府职能部门的基层管理和服务工作一定要到位， 创造性的制度变革是顺应不同性质组织功能的要求， 构建“社区建设指导委员会(政府)－社区管理委员会(社会联合体)－社区工作者(专业服务组织)－社区居委会(自治性组织)”的社区治理结构体系。 The residents' committee as an affiliate of the sub‐district office actually plays a role much greater than that of a “self‐governing mass organization” as defined by law. Owing to path dependence arising from their long‐time role as agents of the government, residents' committee staff are naturally used to regarding daily political administration closely related to community development as part of internal community affairs. Therefore, community building is essentially the construction of a governance structure in grassroots society, which entails state forces vacating some space to allow the self‐operation of grass‐roots society. To realize this goal, the critical precondition rests in that the management and services of the functional departments of government must hit the mark. Creative institutional reform involves establishing a community governance system consisting of a “community‐building guidance committee (government agency), community management committee (social association), community workers (professional service body), community residents' committee (community self‐governing organization).”