The Practical Logic of Inspection Work at the Municipal and County Levels since the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China-A Grounded Theory Analysis of Typical Cases Published on the Website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Commission of Supervision

Since the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, inspection work at the municipal and county levels, as an important institutional vehicle through which the inspection system extends to the grassroots and becomes embedded in the grassroots supervision system, have taken shape in such practical forms as the downward extension of political supervision, more precise problem identification, and the transformation of rectification outcomes into governance effects. Existing studies have tended to emphasize normative exposition and descriptive summaries of experience, while offering insufficient explanation of the grassroots operating mechanisms that distinguish inspection work at the municipal and county levels from higher-level inspections. Drawing on 424 typical cases of inspection work at the municipal and county levels published on the website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission, this article randomly selects 394 cases and imports them into NVivo 15 for procedural grounded-theory coding. The analysis identifies eight main categories: political supervision, problem orientation, the mass line, inspection priorities, inspection methods, inspection procedures, rectification procedures, and the application of inspection outcomes. On this basis, the article distills the core category of “closed-loop inspection governance under the guidance of political supervision.” The study finds that inspection work at the municipal and county levels are guided by the concretization, precision, and regularization of political supervision; rely on problem orientation and the mass line as dual anchors; achieve problem penetration through the coordinated configuration of inspection priorities, methods, and procedures; and transform supervisory momentum into grassroots governance effectiveness through rectification responsibility, evaluation and accountability, and the application of inspection outcomes. By revealing the closed-loop mechanism through which inspection work at the municipal and county levels “operate” and “deliver results,” this article provides an empirical reference for improving the grassroots supervision system.