Nongovernmental Organizations' Policy Advocacy and Government Responsiveness in China

In: Nonprofit and voluntary sector quarterly: journal of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action, Band 47, Heft 4, S. 723-744

Abstract

Can the "associational revolution" improve authoritarian government responsiveness? If it can, what kind of nongovernmental organization (NGO) can successfully lobby the government? Based on different theoretical perspectives, I develop three hypotheses: a pluralist hypothesis that focuses on resource exchange between such organizations and the government, a corporatist hypothesis that focuses on government institutional control and policy consultant intention, and a clientelist hypothesis that recognizes the underinstitutionalization of the policy-making process and emphasizes the informal network. I then test these hypotheses with a quantitative study of survey data of registered NGOs in three Chinese provinces. I find that the corporatist hypothesis is largely supported; the pluralism hypothesis is also somewhat supported while the clientelist hypothesis is not supported. The data reflect a hybrid pattern of policy advocacy that I term pluralized state corporatism, which fits China's recent social-economic transformation and lagged political reform.