Social organizations in China have gained increasing importance when considering power relations in China. This can be partly explained by the fact that China operates through informal politics (decision-making and policy making carried out behind doors through negotiations and connections) and by the Party's focus on the economy. In other words, as long as social or civil organizations are beneficial to the country's economy and well-being, the Party will not interfere or help the former. Institutions are therefore interconnected; Party members are also members of social organizations, thus providing a kind of security to their respective organizations, and social organizations need connections within the Party to survive. For the purposes of this essay, civil societies (which includes social organizations) will be defined as the 'intermediate sphere of voluntary association, compromising a range of organisations, groups, networks and associative forms, lying between the state and the family and which enjoys a certain autonomy with respect to the State". The direct answer to the title is that social organizations have had an impact on decision-making in China. To better understand this, an analysis of the evolution of social organizations will be carried out, followed by the relationship between government and social organizations and how the latter influence the decision-making process (looking at the Shanghai case study). I consider the relationship between the two entities as a corporate relationship, in that although the state deals with conflict resolution and passes legislations, their implementation and the essence of these legislations largely come from below. The organizations were first introduced as involuntary, established as a body of family and kinship...... middle of paper......ers. 2004. Howell, J. Chap 8 New Directions in Civil Society. In Howell, J. (ed.), Governance in China. Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers. 2004. Ma, S. China's discourse on civil society. The Chinese quarterly. (137):180-193. 1994. Saich, T. 2000. Negotiating the State: The Development of Social Organizations in China. The Chinese quarterly. (161):124-141. 2004 Wang, S. and He, J. The Associative Revolution in China - A Comprehensive Review of Chinese Associative Behavior (zhongguoren de shetuangeming), Zhejiang Xuekan, 11, 71-77.http://www.cuhk.edu.hk /gpa/wang_files/NGO.pdf, 2004 Yang, G. How Chinese civic associations respond to the results of an Internet survey. The China Quarterly.(189): 122-143. 2007 Zhang, J. Chap 7 Neighborhood-level governance. In Howell, J. (ed.), Governance in China. Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers. 2004