Breaking the dilemma of hands-off and hands-on: the multi-order meta-governance in China

In governance theory, there is a crucial theoretical conundrum of meta-governance: how can meta-governors simultaneously stay outside of the governed network while also being embedded within it, and appropriately apply hands-off and hands-on strategies? The heterogeneous experiences of governance practices in non-Western contexts may help to explore this issue. The paper examines the ‘Starfish Project’(haixing jihua), a volunteer action aimed at improving the incomes of rural residents in mountainous areas of H District in N City, China, against the backdrop of promoting common prosperity. This initiative involves non-profit organizations, market actors, and government agencies, forming a multi-order meta-governance system. In this system, the government acts as a second-order meta-governor. It provides shared values, norms, and objectives, for the social network, thereby conferring institutional legitimacy upon the social network and its activities. Meanwhile, a non-profit organization operates as a first-order meta-governor within the network, and leverages market-based mechanisms to continuously incentivize network members, foster network interaction, and facilitate conflict resolution. The multi-order meta-governance model provides a potential solution to the dilemma. However, it is important to note that this may not yet be a definitive solution to the conundrum.