Abstract: The western theories on public policy have their scientificity, but they cannot illuminate Chinese Communist's central role in policy process. At the local level, local party committees play a role of the core actors in setting major political agendas. While leading the construction and development of local regions, local party committees face both the political pressure from the Party Central Committee and governance demands from the public. When the pressure or demand accumulate to a certain extent, there arises the fission that changes public policy, and local party committees must cope with such fission by setting major political agendas. In the process of agenda setting, local party committees play the role of core actors, which interact with both Party Central Committee and the public by fully mobilizing administrative, legal and economic resources. Furthermore, they use a variety of ways to make creative political responses to all kinds of pressure and demands. Thus, effective local governance can be realized.

Key words: local party committees, core actor, policy agenda, local governance, public policy