The Differentiation of Law Enforcement Forms in the Framework of Discourse: Law Enforcement Compromise or Law Enforcement Conflict

The compromise phenomenon of grass-roots law enforcement is studied and an interpretative framework of field structure-discourse system-law enforcement variation is constructed through case study, presenting a specific mechanism of law enforcement of grassroots urban management. It is found that the three sets of discourse systems full of tension in the transformation of Chinese society have aggravated the difficulty for the law enforcement to stably maintain the interactive framework of a rational legal discourse, thereby creating possibilities for diversified forms of law enforcement. When forces of urban management law enforcement can continue to incorporate administrative counterparts into the interactive system of rational legal discourse, the form of law enforcement is predictable. When moral public opinion mechanisms, law enforcement risk mechanisms and political accountability mechanisms exist and work independently or cooperatively, there will be a switch from a rational legal discourse system to an ethical political ideological discourse system and may result in law enforcement compromise. Conversely, if law enforcement entities lack sufficient law enforcement capabilities to maintain the stability of the interactive framework of the rational legal discourse and lack sufficient external pressure to promote their transformation to alternative discourse system frameworks, law enforcement confrontation will more likely result in law enforcement conflicts. A more comprehensive understanding of the grassroots law enforcement is presented by incorporating law enforcement, law enforcement conflicts and law enforcement compromises into a unified interpretative framework.