Abstract: The standardization of law enforcement in urban management reflects the institutionalization of law enforcement capacity and is the inherent requirement of the modernization of national governance capacity. Michael Mann defines the infrastructural power as the institutional capacity of the state that enables the state to obtain social support, and implement policies and coordinate social life through the established system, without relying on arbitrary violence to achieve its will. China’s practice of interaction between the state and society in urban primary-level law enforcement shows that law enforcement organizations promote cooperation between the state and the public by such mechanisms as building authority, guiding cooperation, promoting legalization, building consensus, so that law enforcers can accomplish their tasks in a way that wins social support and voluntary obedience, thus shaping the infrastructural power in primary-level governance. However, the mechanisms are also constrained by policy changes, stability maintenance thinking, insufficient institutional resources and conflicts of interest, thus making a maintenance of its long-term effectiveness a tough mission. These constraints pose challenges to the institutional governance capacity of one state, and thus may inhibit the growth of its infrastructural power. In the long run, an independent and rational administrative system and a cooperative society of consensus will provide the necessary impetus for the growth of infrastructural power in the bureaucratic and social dimensions respectively.

Key words: infrastructural power, institutional capacities of state, law enforcement at the primary-level, standardized law enforcement