[author]Zhou Shangjun

[content]

Zhou Shangjun | From Law Enforcement Cases to General Theory: Reflections on Legal Research Methodology

Author: Zhou Shangjun

Professor of Southwest University of Political Science&Law

Abstract: Traditional research on administrative law enforcement relies on normative analysis methods, from rules to individual cases, placing law enforcement cases within the conceptual system of administrative actions such as administrative penalties and administrative coercion for standardized examination. This research method is too abstract in analyzing the logic of actual law enforcement operations, making it difficult to effectively explain the law enforcement operations that occur in specific and complex social fields. However, if starting from a law enforcement case, the biggest challenge is how to extract viewpoints, propositions, and general theories with sufficient explanatory power from the case. Through in-depth analysis of a traffic law enforcement case, it can be found that factors such as space, locality, organization, and micro power can be embedded in the law enforcement case and play a role in specific law enforcement processes. To this end, a universal law enforcement theory can be abstracted from the embedded factors and mechanisms of law enforcement cases, and ultimately a general tool for explaining law enforcement can be found. From law enforcement cases to general theories, it is a process of interaction between theory and practice. Understanding law enforcement cases requires following the scientific research route of "observing individual cases - analyzing empirical facts - searching for concepts - comparing and comparing - discovering general theories".

Keywords: law enforcement cases; Case studies; General theory; Theoretical;

Since the 1980s, social science research methods have been widely valued by Chinese academia. However, there are significant differences in the attitudes and progress of various disciplines towards social sciences, and the progress of social science research in law is relatively slow. This is closely related to the "normative preferences" of legal scholars. However, under the norms of "norm preference", there is actually an implicit value, and even some are Value judgment that carry personal specific positions and life experiences. This perception is direct and true, but it is not scientifically tested. Moreover, 'normative preference' is often not a normative 'tool preference' in essence, but a normative 'value preference'. In contrast, social science research methods pursue an empirical research method aimed at Social fact. Between "yes" and "should", "description" and "judgment", "fact" and "value" of methodology, they stick to a kind of value neutral knowledge "sincerity" from "yes", "description" and "fact". Of course, "value neutrality" (Wertfreiheit) is not about canceling value associations (Wertbeziehung), but requires researchers to strictly draw the boundary between determining empirical facts and practical evaluation judgments in scientific research. A case study is an empirical study conducted on a single unit in order to understand a larger group of units. Case studies focus on describing the flow or chain of events, rather than isolating them; Emphasis is placed on analyzing the dynamic process of events and their connection to specific social scenarios. Of course, a case is a focused experiential phenomenon observed in a limited space at a certain point in time. As Robert Sterk said, case studies are "bounded systems", where "bounded" refers to the differences between cases; The "system" refers to each component within a case as a system. So, the controversial issue in case studies is "bounded", which means whether explanations are representative and universal. That is to say, how is it possible to extract general theories with generality and explanatory power from unique cases, and how case studies must deal with the relationship between particularity and universality, as well as between micro and macro.

Based on this, the author attempts to consider the methodological issues of legal research from three aspects in this article: firstly, the methods of focusing on individual cases and law enforcement cases; The second is the method of discovering theories from law enforcement cases and then discovering general theories (the theories involved in the article have systematic knowledge structures); The third is how legal research deals with the relationship structure between theory and practice. It should be noted that the goal of writing this article is not to propose a general proposition about law enforcement or construct a general theory, but to demonstrate a path of social science research methods in the study of legal empirical problems through case analysis, thus advocating a legal research methodology that is subtle in the interaction between the empirical world and theoretical propositions, and takes the larger from the smaller.

1、 Why Pay Attention to Law Enforcement Cases

Currently, a decentralized approach to chemical research has emerged and continues to develop in the academic community of China. This approach is reflected in academic research, where both legal, political, sociological, and even historical studies have shifted from focusing on mainstream concepts, national elites, or "big traditions" of narrative to focusing on tributary academic, public life, and daily concepts of "small traditions" of narrative. In terms of space, most scholars used to focus their attention on the central, national, and urban areas. Since the 1990s, scholars have begun to attach importance to research on regions, borders, rural areas, and daily fields. For the current Chinese academic, the so-called decentralization has more meanings, that is, it refers to two "go": one is to go west centrism; The second is to eliminate the traditional Chinese academic centralism. Traditional Chinese learning, whether Dong Zhongshu or Cheng–Zhu school's philosophy or Yangming's philosophy, emphasizes classical learning based on the four books and five classics, ignoring the people's daily life and the practical logic behind it. Currently, academic research in China is facing the important task of completing two "going" tasks.

1.1  From Macro Theory to Micro Narrative

From a decentralized perspective, case studies are essentially an important research method that shifts from macro theory to micro narrative. Macroscopic theory emphasizes the macro grasp of institutional and social development and changes, and is a narrative of a large picture. For example, the theory of Class conflict and the theory of social historical formation are both macro theories about the development and change of the whole society. For another example, the history of Free will studied by Hegel's historical philosophy theory is called the history of realizing Free will. Case study is different from macro theory in that it is a micro narrative research method that attempts to understand social life scenarios by understanding the interactions between individuals. The rise of case studies marks an important methodological progress, namely a shift from causality of large events to causality of small events. Causality of major events is an abstract causal link. For example, the end of the World War II has had an impact on all countries and groups in the world to varying degrees. The most prominent manifestation of the causality of major events is the connection between evolution and humanity. Unlike the causality of large events, the causality of small events is a specific causal relationship, which is the analysis of causal mechanisms. Its causality needs to be found in specific human relationships. The theoretical turn brought about by case studies can be said to be the great transformation from Essentialism to Empiricism, which may become an important opportunity for Chinese academic research to get rid of the domination of western modernization macro paradigm and gradually mature. Because from a global perspective, China is also a case, and only from the unique case of China itself can China's social Scientific theory be constructed.

1.2  What is a case study

Case studies are in-depth studies conducted on individual individuals, groups, events, or communities. Therefore, the "case" here is different from the "case" or "precedent" in legal research. Case studies use interviews, observations, literature, and video materials to provide in-depth descriptions of individuals, groups, events, or communities, in order to find details and clues in the research, identify problems, and provide explanations. Su Li pointed out that case studies are mainly used to do two things: first, to understand the complex interactions between people from a small environment or micro level; Secondly, using case studies to challenge, supplement, modify, or even overturn some well-established basic judgments and grand discourse.

In recent years, Chinese scholars have conducted exciting case studies. For example, Wang Di demonstrated the characteristics of modern western Sichuan region in terms of customs, economy, society, organization, and management through a case study of Paoge. Paoge used to be a senior society in the Sichuan Chongqing region, with a semi mafia nature. From the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, this organization had a great influence in Sichuan Chongqing society. Wang Di begins with the narrative of Lei Mingyuan, the leader of Paoge, executing his biological daughter who eloped with others to consolidate his position. Through this case study, Wang Di explains the secret social organization Paoge, which is active in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, and the operational mechanism of modern grassroots social power. Through individual cases, we can experience the ups and downs of the personal destinies of Paoge members and their families in the turbulent era, uncover the daily face of the mysterious Paoge world, and further understand the full, three-dimensional, and vivid modern Western Sichuan society in China. For example, Wu Yi selected a small town for an anthropological in-depth investigation, and used the method of "narration", which is currently not commonly used in mainstream social science research in China, to demonstrate the complex face of "rural politics" reality, and to "explain" and "present" the characteristics of rural political practice process in a micro state. Revealing the operational irregularities of township politics through the case of "small towns" and providing theoretical explanations for them is not only more practical, but may also be a more valuable contribution for the academic community and policy research departments. Regarding the case study of the group, there is Xiong Yihan's political observation on the fate of migrant workers' children. Xiong Yihan and his classmates in the same year's college entrance examination took a completely different path after the exam. Xiong Yihan deeply explains the survival and production mechanisms of the children of migrant workers from an individual narrative perspective. The case studies of Su Li in China's legal community on the "Autumn Chrysanthemum Case", "Defendant Shan Gang Ye", and "Yan'an Yellow Plate Case" fully demonstrate the institutional difficulties in the judicial process in both individual cases and details. Jiang Shigong's scenario based micro description of the "small event" of the "loan collection case according to law" shows the power operation of the "court session on the kang" and the dispute resolution mechanism in rural society.

1.3  Pay attention to law enforcement cases

Due to the relatively closed nature of judicial activities, which facilitates the construction of a logically distinct research field, Chinese legal researchers often focus on the judicial field rather than the law enforcement field. But in fact, law enforcement penetrates into all aspects of people's daily lives and serves as an important bridge connecting the country and society. The public may rarely have direct dealings with judicial organs, but no one can escape the varying degrees of influence of law enforcement. Contrary to the importance of law enforcement in citizen life, there is relatively little research in the legal community on law enforcement, especially on individual law enforcement cases.

In the Western legal community, law enforcement as an academic issue began in 19th century Europe and is often included in police studies for research. After the transition from police science with political science and political ethics to administrative law, law enforcement issues began to detach from police science and become an important content of administrative law research. This tradition continues to this day, and academic research on law enforcement is basically equivalent to administrative law enforcement research, mainly discussing the normative principles of administrative law enforcement from the perspectives of historical context, law enforcement organizations, and law enforcement methods. For example, some scholars attempt to sort out the evolution trajectory and problems in the construction of mechanisms of administrative law enforcement by examining the institutional history of administrative law enforcement. Scholars have focused on the legal basis for the reform of the administrative law enforcement system and are committed to explaining that the law enforcement system reform implemented by the government belongs to the process of the government determining and redefining the subject of administrative authority. Some scholars explained the reform of administrative law enforcement under the background of the promulgation and implementation of China's Civil code, and believed that administrative law enforcement would accelerate the development of the law enforcement model of "relative person centrism". Overall, the research focus of administrative law enforcement still highly relies on normative research methods, categorizing special law enforcement issues into the conceptual system of administrative actions such as administrative penalties and administrative coercion, and conducting a general examination. This research method has made significant contributions to the construction of administrative rule of law, but its drawback is that the handling of specific law enforcement issues is too abstract, and from theory to case studies, only principled countermeasures can be drawn, which is insufficient to explain the power of law enforcement cases that occur in complex social fields.

Unlike traditional normative research on law enforcement, there have been some empirical studies on law enforcement issues in China's academic community, such as case studies of urban police stations, on-site observations of judicial stations, case studies of traffic police law enforcement, and analyzing specific data from administrative litigation and administrative reconsideration to study the specific situation of law enforcement from the side. However, overall, the mainstream research methods in the field of administrative law in China are still concentrated on flat structural theory, paying more attention to whether the law enforcement subject is qualified, whether the law enforcement power is centralized, and whether the law enforcement supervision is standardized. The specific reasons for problems in the law enforcement process are often attributed to the lack of law enforcement power or the non-standard use of power by the law enforcement subject. But when people examine the micro process of the operation of law enforcement cases, they will find that the greater and more concentrated the power, the smoother the law enforcement process; In other words, the lack of concentration of law enforcement power is not the reason for ineffective law enforcement. If we delve deep into the fields and law enforcement streets, we will find that there are various types of law enforcement cases in society, and these complex law enforcement situations cannot be simply summarized as legal or illegal. Because power forms a balance of power in specific law enforcement relationships, which implies complex behavioral logic.

2、 Analysis of a law enforcement case

The author selects a traffic law enforcement case that occurred in S district of a certain province as the analysis sample. The case has been labeled as "violent law enforcement" by public opinion. The research group led by the author has basically restored the entire process of the law enforcement case through video images and relevant information retrieval. The case was caused by illegal parking, and the traffic police imposed indiscriminate penalties on the car owners in order to maintain urban management order. Why did this simple law enforcement act, which was originally a routine measure beneficial to public transportation, cause fierce condemnation by public opinion, resulting in a huge rift between law enforcement officials and the public? The process of returning to the scene to find the answer to this question is also the process of discovering theoretical ideas in the details of the event relationship structure.

2.1  Case Review

The location of this case is a small roadway in Zone S, which is a two-way two-lane branch line connecting the community under the urban branch road system. At the time of the incident, the district was in the final stage of creating a national level health city. It is in this context that the traffic police launched street renovations in this small alley, which has not been subject to traffic law enforcement before. In order to implement high-intensity law enforcement, vehicles parked in this alley that have not been fined or deducted before were fined and deducted indiscriminately, resulting in all vehicles parked in the alley being issued with fines.

If we simply start from the traditional perspective of administrative law, the specific administrative act has occurred, and the administrative penalty has been imposed after the traffic police issue the ticket. After the punished car owner pays the fine according to the ticket, this administrative act can be concluded. However, from the perspective of the event chain of law enforcement cases, this enforcement has only just begun. A traffic police officer posted a ticket for a illegally parked vehicle, and the owner of a nearby store who bought cigarettes immediately returned to the vehicle. He promised to drive away and requested the traffic police to withdraw the penalty, but was refused by the traffic police. The car owner is very dissatisfied with the law enforcement behavior of the traffic police and has been following them. There are three reasons why car owners are dissatisfied: firstly, traffic police do not usually enforce laws in this alley; Secondly, if the car owner is on site, the traffic police should give the car owner an opportunity to avoid punishment; Thirdly, traffic management departments should help car owners solve parking problems. Behind these three reasons, a logical chain of life scenarios is formed. In the process of constantly repeating, car owners have actually consolidated this self belief. But for the repeated reasons of the car owner, the traffic police did not respond except for the reply "all have been posted". When one party is unable to receive a response from the other during the process of interpersonal communication, this communication can easily escalate to a relatively more intense level. The car owners became increasingly excited and began to insult traffic police, similar to what Ying Xing pointed out in his research on group incidents as "gathering energy to form a scene".

Another important factor in the roadway at this time is the reaction of the onlookers, which constitutes a more noteworthy object in the law enforcement scene. Although there is no traffic law enforcement in this alley during normal times, the people living on both sides of the alley have long detested the phenomenon of vehicles parking and leaving indiscriminately. Therefore, the public agrees with the law enforcement actions of traffic police to crack down on illegal parking, and criticizes and accuses the car owners who pester the traffic police. But as the incident progressed, cracks began to emerge between the masses and law enforcement officials. When the traffic police arrived at the entrance of the police station located at the intersection of the alley, the car owner was still insulting. At this time, an assistant police officer appeared and began to warn the car owner, but the car owner still did not stop insulting. So the traffic police began to seek help from the police station, and then three police officers appeared, and five police officers began to confront the car owner. After the traffic police warned the car owner again that there was no result, five police officers rushed up together and subdued the car owner on the ground. The onlookers began to gather and remain silent, leaving only the car owners howling desperately. At this moment, the wife of the car owner heard her husband's shout and rushed out from him with a one and a half year old child in her arms, starting to obstruct the police. Subsequently, the woman was also controlled by the police, and both husband and wife were taken to the police station.

At this point in the development of the event, a very important scene emerged. As the woman was pinned down by three police officers, the child placed aside witnessed the intense scene and began to burst into tears, pointing her small hand towards the entrance of the police station. The onlookers who witnessed this scene began to show great sympathy for the controlled car owner and his wife, and criticized the police for their extreme behavior. The enthusiastic crowd picked up the young children and comforted them. As more and more onlookers gathered at the entrance of the police station, the masses began to unanimously accuse the police of excessive law enforcement, and some people joined the ranks of insulting the police.

2.2 Role Analysis in the Law Enforcement Field

In this incident, the subjects in the law enforcement field can be divided into three categories: illegal car owners, law enforcement police officers, and onlookers. Of course, if segmentation goes far beyond these three types of subjects. These three types of subjects play different roles in the law enforcement field. By analyzing the behavior and attitudes of different roles in the law enforcement field, the logic and evolution clues of this event can be crawled at the micro level.

2.2.1  Illegal car owners: reversal of roles

According to the above case description, the cause of this incident is that the car owner was punished for illegal parking and used "verbal violence" against law enforcement officers. The reason why car owners choose to use language to attack law enforcement officers is because they insist on three reasons: traffic police usually do not enforce law in this alley; When the car owner is on site, the traffic police should, as a rule, give an opportunity to avoid punishment; The traffic management department should help car owners solve the problem of parking. Due to the inherent logical correlation among these three reasons, car owners can continuously consolidate themselves in the process of repeating the reasons, and their behavioral logic manifests as refusal to understand, resistance, rather than obedience to administrative actions. Due to the disgust of the onlookers in the law enforcement field towards illegal parking and obstructing traffic, they have criticized the behavior of car owners in resisting traffic police law enforcement. At this point, the main role of car owners in the law enforcement arena is the 'criticized'.

However, with the transformation of law enforcement police behavior, the role played by car owners has reversed, shifting from being criticized to being sympathized with. The main reason is that women and children, as weak individuals, have aroused strong sympathy among the onlookers, leading to a public opinion uproar in the law enforcement field. In the context of car owners verbally attacking police officers, both sides are in a state of balance of power, while the crowd supports police officers who exercise law enforcement powers in public opinion. After the car owner's wife appeared carrying a young child, the number of police officers had increased to five, and the balance of power between the two sides was unbalanced. At the same time, after witnessing a woman who was seen as a vulnerable party being pinned down by three police officers and a young child crying out in an explosive manner, the crowd's sympathy was aroused, and public opinion quickly began to shift towards the car owner's couple. At this point, car owners begin to transition from being criticized to being sympathized with.

2.2.2 Law enforcement police: loss of recognition of law enforcement authority

In the early stages of the incident, law enforcement police remained restrained in their verbal attacks on the car owner and expressed to the car owner, "Please cooperate. The police officers chose to enforce the law in a civilized manner, in stark contrast to the constant verbal insults from car owners. At this time, the law enforcement power held by the police officers gained public recognition. But as the law enforcement police called in four colleagues, and one of the co police officers began to warn the car owner, the external form of the police's law enforcement power shifted from equal status "negotiation" to an unquestionable "authoritarian" image. Under the guise of "authoritarian" law enforcement power, police have begun to exert strong control over car owners and their spouses, escalating verbal conflicts into physical conflicts. At the same time, due to the weak image of controlled women and unattended young children, it added a sense of empathy among the onlookers, causing public opinion on the scene to quickly shift from being favorable for law enforcement police to being beneficial for the car owners and their spouses. In the end, after the sympathy of the onlookers was aroused, the law enforcement behavior of the police was labeled as "violent law enforcement", resulting in a serious loss of law enforcement power identification among law enforcement police in the context of a shift in public opinion.

2.2.3  Observing the masses: makers of public opinion

Although the protagonist of the incident is the car owner as the party involved and the police officer as the law enforcement officer, the role played by the masses in the law enforcement field cannot be ignored. Amidst the crowd's onlooking, this ordinary traffic law enforcement scene is like a stage being watched by a spotlight. Any behavior made by the "performers" on stage will be rapidly amplified by the public opinion created by the onlookers. At the same time, public opinion will also have a significant impact on the choice of behavior logic between car owners and police officers. The reason why car owners choose to verbally abuse the law enforcement police rather than accept administrative punishment according to law is partly because the crowd around the law enforcement field is constantly gathering. If the police react too hard in this situation, it may cause high Social cost of law enforcement. At the same time, in this public opinion arena, the parties involved can also incite public emotions to gain support. According to Scott's theory, when the powerless are in front of the powerful, they often adopt a certain "strategic stance". In this incident, when a police officer attempted to take the car owner to the police station, his wife rushed forward and caught a police officer, shouting, "Why do you want to arrest people? You can't arrest people, we can just drive away, why do you want to arrest people?" This is precisely how the parties attempted to "make a big fuss" in order to win the support of the onlookers, in order to increase the pressure on law enforcement police in the public opinion field and occupy a favorable position in the game. Therefore, the influence of the public opinion field constructed by the onlookers on law enforcement behavior is the deep-seated social reason that leads to the conclusion of the event.

3、 Analysis Path of Law Enforcement Cases

Based on the development clues of the above traffic law enforcement cases, important concepts or propositions can be explored from specific details, in order to discover general theories, and the theoretical feedback can be confirmed in the case, achieving the correlation and interaction between the case and the theory.

3.1  Space, Locality, and Organization

3.1.1  Space

For the analysis of the above-mentioned law enforcement cases, the first step can be to start with the concept of space. Since the second half of the 20th century, under the guidance of Lefebvre and Foucault's spatial thinking, there has been a trend of "spatial turn" in social theory. The "spatial shift" refers to the shift in research methods in the field of social sciences, which no longer solely regards space as an objective external aspect, but attempts to introduce a new perspective, new thinking, and new methods of "spatial/geographical observation" into social science research. Lefebvre believed that space is a product of society. "Space, it seems homogeneous, its pure form seems completely objective, but once we explore it, it is actually a social product. Sociologist Zimmer also believes that "emphasizing the various spatial meanings of things and events is not unreasonable. Because their actual processes are often like this, their spatial forms, positive or negative conditions are particularly prominent for observation, and we can obtain the clearest proof of various practical forces in them

Later, the interpretation and application of space in the academic community mainly followed two paths. Firstly, represented by Giddens and Bourdieu, it advocates examining the interactive relationship between space and society within the framework of modernity, with the aim of examining the significance of this relationship in studying social structure and processes. For example, Giddens believes that space is a specific scene in which people interact with each other in society, fundamentally constraining the development of practical activities. Bourdieu proposed the basic concept of "social space" in his book "Differentiation: A Social Critique of Judgment" published in 1979, and based on this, clarified the complex relationship between "geographical space" and "social space". Secondly, postmodern sociologists use relevant concepts of geography to analyze the increasingly complex modern society. Zimmer specifically explored space theory in his article "Sociology of Space". He believes that space is given meaning in the process of social interaction, where "interaction transforms previously empty and worthless space into something that is real to us. Space makes interaction possible, and interaction fills space.

As for the impact of social space on law enforcement, the author once conducted a Field research on urban management law enforcement, and found that urban management law enforcement officers often adopt different law enforcement strategies under different social space conditions. For example, the attitude of law enforcement officers towards the parties involved in street law enforcement is completely different from the attitude towards the parties involved in law enforcement offices. The reason is that in specific street spaces, the behavior of law enforcement officers is constrained by conditions such as onlookers and public opinion. Specifically, regarding the traffic law enforcement case mentioned above, this case occurred in an alley, which is what sociology calls the "street". The theory of "street bureaucrats" or "street politicians" has obvious reference value for analyzing the behavioral logic of various actors in this event. Street bureaucrats "are defined by Lipsky as public officials who must interact directly with the public in their work. Although "street bureaucrats" are at the end of bureaucratic institutions, in fact they are the actual builders of public service images. Faced with limited resources, vague goals, and involuntary street work environments, they are forced to passively use their discretion to develop a series of coping models. In the response process, "street bureaucrats" play a key role, playing the role of actual policy makers while implementing policies. In recent years, the theory of "street bureaucrats" has begun to enter the perspective of domestic scholars and has been applied to the analysis of specific scenarios in Chinese society. In this case, the police officers chose to endure and communicate with the car owner's verbal abuse, largely because they were in a street law enforcement environment and constrained by many variables on the street. That is to say, in the uncertain scene of street law enforcement, police officers often strive to seek satisfactory decision-making and psychological and organizational processes, thereby developing a series of effective mechanisms and models. Its purpose is to respond to the difficulties and uncertainties in street law enforcement work.

3.1.2 Local

This case can also be analyzed from a local perspective. From a local perspective, concepts such as "block by block relationship" can serve as important references for analyzing this case. In terms of organizational structure, the Chinese government clearly exhibits vertical hierarchical and horizontal departmental characteristics. By dividing the entire administrative region into blocks through hierarchy, and by dividing the blocks into strips through the corresponding departments at each level, a unique system of combining strips has been formed. Among them, "strip relationship" mainly refers to the relationship between vertical management departments, "block relationship" mainly refers to the relationship between local governments, and "strip relationship" refers to the relationship between vertical management departments and local governments, which is essentially a problem of power division between the central and local governments. The political system of "block by block relationship" contains a strong local color, coupled with the characteristics of the Party taking overall responsibility and coordinating all parties, which can become an important theoretical support for analyzing law enforcement cases with Chinese characteristics. Chen Baifeng once pointed out the impact of the party and government system on grassroots law enforcement from a practical logic perspective. He believed that the party and government system shapes grassroots law enforcement through three dimensions: regulations, blocks, and political ethics, presenting three mechanism characteristics: promoting law enforcement by regulations, coordinating governance by blocks, and embedding political ethics.

In the above-mentioned law enforcement cases, the background of the incident was the creation of a national hygienic and civilized city. In order to ensure smooth acceptance, the Party Committee led and mobilized the entire region to carry out special governance actions, including traffic order rectification. Compared to conventional governance, specialized governance is characterized by a bureaucratic system that temporarily interrupts or stops conventional operations in order to complete a specific task, and instead uses a top-down, political mobilization approach to concentrate all forces and attention. Special governance is a complex comprehensive law enforcement measure, which not only involves systemic issues, but also includes block issues. In the Key Stage of building a national health civilized city for acceptance, the province needs to quickly integrate resources to complete the goals and tasks set by "creating health". In this process, rules and blocks have formed a relationship of interaction and mutual influence. The upper and lower levels of law enforcement departments are in a close relationship, highly sensitive, and frequently interactive state due to the special law enforcement of "creating health". The S district, which is responsible for overall control of "creating health", needs to promote cooperation among various departments, gather law enforcement resources, deploy tasks and indicators, and carry out propaganda and mobilization work.

In this case, the reason for choosing a roadway that has never been enforced before as the enforcement field is related to the above-mentioned special operations and their mobilization. The behavioral logic in special actions can be explained by the "pressure based system" or the "indicator assessment system". Rong Jingben and others earlier put forward the analytical paradigm of "pressure system" or "indicator assessment system", believing that it refers to the quantitative task decomposition management method and materialistic evaluation system adopted by the first level Political organisation (counties and townships) in order to achieve economic catch-up and complete various indicators issued by their superiors. Due to the adoption of a "one vote veto" system in many of these task indicators, organizations at all levels can only operate under the pressure of this evaluation system. The "pressure based system" or "indicator assessment system" can be implemented and implemented in a multi-level government structure, mainly relying on the advantageous position within the administrative system and relying on the control of lower level powers and financial power by superiors. This political system places individual law enforcement officials at the focus of analysis. Its supervision and incentive are based on administrative pressure, and will adopt the index method to decompose and demote tasks, laying an important Microfoundations for people to analyze the behavior and phenomenon of law enforcement officials, and even the behavior and phenomenon of local governments. Returning to the incident itself, the S district law enforcement department has decomposed and assigned the law enforcement tasks of health creation to grassroots law enforcement agencies layer by layer to ensure smooth acceptance of health creation, and finally implemented specific indicators and scores for each street. After indexing, grassroots law enforcement agencies compete around the law enforcement indicators of each street to achieve high investment competition to enhance the "law enforcement display", and generate a series of evaluation rankings, reward and punishment measures, promotion incentives, etc., thus forming a law enforcement "championship".

3.1.3 Organization

The organizational concept can also serve as an important support for analyzing this case. In the sociological sense, Max Weber is regarded as the founder of organizational theory or organizational research. He regards bureaucracy as the basic feature of modern society. Weber believed that bureaucracy is just one of the many types of organizations, but modern bureaucracy based on rational principles is the most efficient form of organization invented in human history. Therefore, bureaucracy is the most ideal form of any organization. Afterwards, relevant theoretical and empirical research were expanded on Weber's foundation.

From the perspective of organizational theory, different administrative organizations have different enforcement effects. During the investigation of urban management law enforcement, the author found that the public has a congenital distrust of urban management law enforcement organizations. "Urban management has arrived" is a habitual expression of the public's resistance towards urban management. In contrast, for police or public security law enforcement organizations, the public is inherently identified. The underlying reason is that public security organizations and urban management organizations belong to two different organizations, with their respective organizational histories, specific allocation of law enforcement scenarios, and different allocation of law enforcement resources. Due to the differences in organizational levels, the two organizations have gained different cultural structure cognition. Under the combined action of these factors, the public has developed a "innate" trust in public security organizations and a "innate" distrust in urban management organizations.

At the same time, each organization exists in a specific organizational environment. Organizational environment refers to all important factors outside of an organization that affect its ability to survive and achieve its goals. Changes in the organizational environment often create new combinations of interests, thereby affecting the attitudes and behaviors of law enforcement personnel. In this case, before the "creation of health" in S district, law enforcement organizations were faced with the conventional law enforcement environment at that time, and were basically not willing to overlook the small alleys for law enforcement, let alone take high-intensity law enforcement measures. However, after ensuring the smooth passing of the "Health Creation" acceptance as the central task of S district, the law enforcement environment underwent significant changes. Law enforcement organizations carried out special law enforcement actions and high-intensity law enforcement on all alleys, and began to impose indiscriminate fines and penalties, resulting in all vehicles in the alleys being labeled with fines. Therefore, sudden changes in the organizational environment can have a significant impact on the behavior of law enforcement organizations and their personnel. Faced with new law enforcement goals and tasks, they often change their original law enforcement attitudes, scope, methods, and intensity.

3.2 Micro power

Many scholars in the field of administrative law believe that the difficulty in achieving effective administrative law enforcement in China is due to insufficient concentration of administrative power. Therefore, they suggest "strengthening comprehensive law enforcement and relatively concentrating administrative power". However, using micro power theory for case studies, we will find that power is not a simple form of being granted, directly possessed, and implemented.

The concept of "micro power" was invented by Michel Foucault. The objects, characters, groups, and issues that Foucault focuses on in his case studies are all marginal, and he focuses more on the power techniques implemented by the people in their daily lives. Foucault's treatise on micro power is scattered in many of his works. Discipline and Punishment puts forward "discipline power", Crazy History of the Classical antiquity and his doctoral dissertation study how mental patients produce and expand their own power, and Birth of Clinical Medicine discusses the power in medical relations, and so on. But the book that systematically discusses micro power is Foucault's lecture collection "The Necessity of Defending Society" at the French Academy, in which he summarizes a series of important characteristics of power.

One is the universality of power. Foucault believed that power is omnipotent, and power exists in every relationship structure, not only within a particular subject or group. From this perspective, all individuals in the aforementioned traffic law enforcement field have power, and the police have law enforcement power; The onlookers have created a public opinion field and have an important guiding force for the development of the event. In this sense, everyone around the crowd also has power. In specific cases, each person aggregates their different powers into the field of the case, resulting in a complex and complex structure of the power field.

The second is the regularity of power operation. The specific operation of power unfolds in a certain social field and follows certain laws. Power, rules and discourse support, shape and strengthen each other. Power, rules and discourse form a stable Love triangle relationship. Starting from this context, power strengthens rules and can externalize itself into rules and form a discourse. At the same time, discourse can also strengthen power, thereby gaining people's recognition of power. Power, rules and discourse form a mutually reinforcing cellular structure, and the operation of power in society follows this Love triangle.

The third is the fluidity of power. Power does not always stay in a certain place, it always operates in social networks. So, not everyone has power, but we form a network of relationships, and power is exercised through ourselves. When Marx talked about the alienation of power and Dialectic of power, he discussed the characteristics of power: "The capitalist has this power not because of his personal or human characteristics, but because he is the owner of capital. His power is the irresistible purchasing power of his capital." Slavoj Žižek, a Slovenian scholar of Neo-Marxism, pointed out that: When you are in a position of power, it does not mean that you have power, but that power exercises its own power through you. If the fluidity of power is applied to the analysis of the above-mentioned law enforcement cases, it can be found how the identification of law enforcement power gradually loses from the hands of traffic police.

Power has a microscopic state, which requires us to enter the capillary state of power and enter the periphery of society. Because only by entering a microscopic state can one perceive the subtle changes in the operation of power, and only then can one clarify why power is gradually losing. By reinterpreting the above-mentioned traffic law enforcement cases with micro power, it can be found that in the law enforcement field, the subjects with power are not limited to police officers, but all present and absent "present" people have power. At the beginning of law enforcement, the power of police officers is quite stable and centralized, as the support attitude of the onlookers towards police law enforcement is constantly consolidating their law enforcement power. When the police tried to control the car owner, the people began to silence, which showed that the police's power identity was in a flowing state, and a consolidated, centralized power identity in the hands of the police began to "flow away from the fingers". In the end, when the police pushed down the owner's wife, the young children cried loudly, and the crowd began to accuse the Police brutality of violent law enforcement, the police's recognition of law enforcement authority had been basically lost, and forced implementation would not help.

4、 The Methodology of Connecting Theory and Practice

Through the analysis of the above-mentioned law enforcement cases, not only has the operational logic between law enforcement cases and law enforcement power itself been clarified, but the general relationship network of power operation can be discovered, the universal concept of power can be found, and ultimately tools for understanding power and interpreting law enforcement power can be used. Following the case analysis path of dissecting power at the micro level, the third question raised by the author in this article can be preliminarily answered: how to move from law enforcement cases to general theories. This problem is essentially the relationship between theory and practice, which belongs to the category of Philosophical methodology. The relationship between theory and practice is the most important pair of categories, and although this relationship is difficult to handle, legal research must maintain a high level of methodological consciousness towards it. Chen Ruihua is an early scholar in China's legal community who realized that "it is time to reflect on research methods". He believes that "the 'talk on paper' legal reasoning, once encountering a living legal practice, is easy to expose problems and shortcomings, and eventually abandoned by researchers." He advocates an "academic path from experience to theory", and calls it the "Third Way" of legal research. Social scientist Jeffrey C. Alexander has compiled a scientific continuum model (as shown in Figure 1), from which the whole process from experience to theory can be clearly sorted out.

Figure 1 Scientific Continuum

4.1 Starting from the experimental environment

In Figure 1, the arrows extend towards both ends, which can be roughly understood as normative research methods starting from the left and social science research methods starting from the right. Starting from the right end of the arrow, social science first needs to enter the experimental environment for observation, and discover and collect materials. However, what social science research lacks the most is a methodology that integrates a large amount of empirical materials, that is, how to grasp effective empirical materials. The scientific nature of a study depends on the methods used. Doing a good research requires the use of different research methods in various stages of the research. The correct use of these research methods is a prerequisite for ensuring the success of the research and the accurate application of empirical materials. From the perspective of general academic research, the method of converting 'facts' into' data ',' data 'into' evidence ', and' evidence 'into' conclusions' is the broad social science research method

Qiao Xiaochun divided the research methods into three levels: methodology, general methods, and specific methods. Moreover, there is a close correlation between the three, and the latter usually requires the former as the foundation and condition. Specifically, the significance of methodology is to help researchers observe the essence of Social phenomenon, understand what social science is like, and then discover how to do a research is "scientific". The general method is a variety of technical methods applicable to various social sciences. The general methods of social science research can be divided into two categories: quantitative or quantitative research methods, and qualitative or qualitative research methods. Quantitative research methods generally follow the research approach of natural sciences, emphasizing the discovery of causal laws of things or relationships in research, making detailed empirical observations, and requiring researchers to maintain value neutrality when facing research content. Qualitative research methods have strong explanatory power, focusing on guiding researchers to identify the internal feelings formed by individual motivation and determine how people take action in specific ways. This method often requires extensive inference to conduct in-depth analysis of the cause and significance, belonging to the "dissecting sparrow" type of analysis. Specific methods are technical methods that are further developed on the basis of general methods and are only related to specific disciplines, such as economic specific methods, sociological specific methods, and anthropological specific methods.

It is worth emphasizing that in the process of searching for effective empirical materials, the most important thing is to find the correlation between behavior and phenomenon, that is, to find the causal relationship mechanism from the influence of various variables on the results, and gradually approach and extract general propositions from the causal relationship.

4.2 Starting from an abstract environment

If we start from an abstract environment and first make a general assumption to the far left of the arrow in Figure 1, assuming a judgment, and then enter the theoretical model, it is another completely different research approach. After determining the theoretical model, concepts need to be proposed and defined based on the selected model. But we will find that in the definition process, using one concept cannot fully cover the meaning of most models, so multiple concepts will appear, and researchers need to classify these concepts. Many researchers abstract general theories in the process of classifying concepts and ultimately discover 'laws'.

However, in reality, according to Alexander's scientific continuum model, every node in the process from abstract environment to experimental environment requires the combination of abstract elements and experimental elements. There are not really pure abstract elements and pure theoretical models. In legal research, whether it is general theoretical predictions or in-depth field research in social sciences, there should be no bias towards abstract and experimental elements.

On the one hand, empirical surveys may see too many phenomena, but what phenomena are meaningful? What phenomena are interrelated? This requires explanatory power, and it cannot be achieved simply by looking at and remembering all the observed phenomena themselves. Therefore, a theoretical analysis framework is needed to help us see important and meaningful phenomena. In a sense, empirical facts observed by researchers usually do not have their own meaning (or cannot be expressed), and only after theoretical analysis by researchers with an analytical framework can they "generate" meaning. The meanings generated through theoretical analysis can deepen people's understanding of these facts. At the same time, when we enter the field and observe and discover, it is difficult to get rid of our subjective theoretical assumptions, just like Gadamer's explanation that the interpreter is always unable to eliminate their "preconceptions".

On the other hand, proposing general theoretical predictions from an abstract environment cannot simply transplant a foreign theory or theoretical viewpoint from a methodological perspective. Especially, transplanted theoretical viewpoints cannot be used as a basis and standard for certain value judgments. The scientific continuum requires the determination to carefully sort out various relevant theories and their logical foundations with the ultimate need for experimental environment confirmation or falsification, combining theories with empirical elements in daily life, and gradually exploring the application of theoretical predictions, transforming theoretical propositions, and creatively transforming general theories.

4.3 The connection between theory and experience

In empirical research, there is no absolutely good theory, only the most effective theory that explains specific cases. For example, in the above-mentioned law enforcement cases, spatial theory, local theory, and organizational theory may all explain a certain field or phenomenon in the law enforcement process, but it is difficult to say which theory is the most effective or flawless. Meanwhile, although we may gradually negate theoretical predictions before entering the field through experience, in law enforcement case studies, and even in all legal studies, it should be clear that the scientific continuum is composed of a combination of abstract and experimental elements. Therefore, there is no practice without theory, nor is there a theory without practice.

What we need is neither a simple theoretical prediction nor a simple accumulation of experience, but a combination of experience and theory, a methodology that Tight junction experience and theory, and extracts general propositions from fresh Empirical evidence. As Huang Zongzhi said, "Once theory is connected, it is possible to transcend the simplicity, retrospective, and specificity of experience. At the same time, once experience is connected, the historicity of the theory will be recognized, avoiding its absolutization or ideological transcendence of time and space. We can summarize in this way: experience is one thing, theory is one thing, but when connected, it is another thing

From the relationship between theory and experience, theory must serve the understanding of experience, not the opposite. It is through the medium of theory that researchers are able to delve deeper into complex experiences and observe and understand the essence of experience. At the same time, once the understanding of the essence of experience is systematized, it is transformed into theory. For researchers, in order to understand experience and practice, it is necessary to bring theoretical resources and assumptions with them, and to prepare various theoretical resources and assumptions with a wide range of perspectives, in order to select and apply theoretical resources relatively flexibly in research. However, researchers do not prioritize theory alone, nor do they completely apply a certain theory to explain Chinese practice. Instead, they use theory to filter, cut, or even reject experience. Therefore, researchers need to use existing social Scientific theory and methodological resources to understand experience, and apply appropriate theories and methods in specific empirical research, so as to constantly improve their understanding of experience and practice.

5、 Conclusion

From the perspective of legal research methodology, how to move from specific cases to general theories, and how to elevate the analysis and research of experience to the level of "conceptualization" or "theorization", the following three points need to be noted. Firstly, one should be adept at proposing hypothetical propositions from diverse and complex legal phenomena. This hypothetical proposition should not only come from empirical facts that have already occurred, but also have theoretical explanatory power for the reasons why the problem occurred. Secondly, it is necessary to achieve "induction before deduction". "First induction" refers to the process of upgrading from Chinese experience to theory, and from "individual" to "general"; Post deduction "refers to the confirmation or falsification of concepts or propositions previously derived through induction in specific contexts. Thirdly, in causal analysis, it is necessary to focus on identifying exogenous variables that are proposed from outside the problem and have sufficient explanatory power over the cause of the problem, as well as identifying direct causal relationships. In summary, in order to discover general theories in law enforcement cases, we need to follow the route of "observing individual cases - analyzing empirical facts - finding concepts - comparing and comparing - discovering general theories": based on the systematic collection of case data, observe the empirical facts of individual cases from multiple perspectives; Use simple theoretical language to preliminarily describe, analyze, and synthesize the empirical facts of the case; Find concepts that reflect empirical facts of the case, and then establish connections with the theoretical framework through these concepts. In this process, researchers should first maintain a high degree of sensitivity to existing theories, previous theories, and theories presented in individual cases, and effectively utilize practical knowledge and intuition towards research issues; Then, continuously compare and contrast the empirical facts of the case with the concepts and propositions in the theoretical framework, consider the internal relationships between them, and connect these relationships; Ultimately discover (establish) a theoretical system or relatively systematic theoretical hypothesis with inherent connections and universal explanatory power.