Understanding the role of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in the “central government-local government-society” framework: a case study on public crisis management during the pandemic in China

Abstract This study unravels the complexity of government-CSOs relations in China by distinguishing the roles of the central government and local governments and develops a “central government-local government-society” framework. Investigations into the “central government-local government-society” interactions in a public crisis management case during the COVID-19 pandemic reveal the key features of government-CSOs interactions in China: i) the central-local tension shapes the demand for the society’s participation in public governance as an additional influencer, and the presence of citizen groups as the critical audience has influenced the way central and local governments interact; ii) the central government and the society empower each other in public governance, and the central government’s capability of turning CSOs into partners secures the mutual beneficial relation between them; iii) the fragmentation of the local government and its affiliated institutions leads to the co-existence of the conflicting modes of government-CSOs interactions at the local level, which is the institutional basis for the survival and growth of CSOs even in localities with very conservative local political environments. It turns out that distinguishing the roles of heterogenous “state” actors helps to unravel the complexity of government-CSOs relations and provides new insights into the role of CSOs.