To achieve the aim of “building the rule of law in a socialist country”, local governments play a crucial role. In practice, local governments take the main responsibility to implement the law. At the same time, local governments face some practical problems because of the dual role of local governments in the structure of governmental regulation. The goal of “building the rule of law” requires the rule of law in the whole country, including the lower governments. To this end, it is necessary to attach the importance to the unique function of the local governments, and shape the local institutional autonomy so that they may participate in this process. As a normative study on the system of the Chinese Constitution, the paper will illustrate the meaning of “central unified leadership” and then suggest that at the local level, institutional incentives should be provided for the local initiatives.

Our 2020 Annual Conference was scheduled to be held at the University of Wrocław in Poland on July 9-11, 2020.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ICON·S Executive Committee has decided to postpone our 2020 Conference to 2021. Our next Annual Conference will take place from July 8-10, 2021, in Wrocław, Poland.
Procedural details regarding the organization of the 2021 Conference will follow in the months ahead.
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