Suchergebnisse

"This book presents an analysis of adaptive local policy implementation in China in the context of the "Building of a New Socialist Countryside" (BNSC) policy framework. Based on intensive field work in four counties in Fujian, Jiangxi, Shaanxi and Zhejiang Provinces between 2008 and 2011, it offers detailed analyses of the form and impact of county governments' strategic agency at certain stages and within certain fields of the implementation process (for example, the design of local BNSC programs, the steering of project funding, implementation and evaluation, the establishment of model villages and the management of public participation). Further, this study illustrates that BNSC is far more than the 'empty slogan' described by many observers when it was launched in 2005/2006. Instead, it has already brought about considerable shifts in terms of the process and outcomes of rural policy implementation. Altogether, the results of this research challenge existing paradigms by showing how, against the background of contemporary approaches to rural development and recent reforms initiated by the central state, local bureaucracies' strategic agency can actually push forward effective--albeit not necessarily optimal--policy implementation to some extent, which serves the interests of central authorities, local implementors and rural residents"--

At the turn of the millennium, the disparities between rural and urban livelihoods, underdevelopment and administrative shortcomings in the Chinese countryside were increasingly seen as posing a manifest threat to social harmony and economic and political stability. At that time the term ""three rural problems"" (sannong wenti) was coined which defined the main issues of rural life that needed to be targeted by government action: agriculture (nongye), villages (nongcun) and farmers (nongmin). In turn, with the launch of the 11th Five-Year Plan in 2006,

This monograph ties in the scholarly debate on Chinese village elections and their consequences for China's political system. By critically assessing the recent literature on village elections and drawing on qualitative fieldwork data gathered in six villages of two provinces and one urban district, it contributes to our understanding of the nexus between political participation and cadre accountability at the grassroots and highlights a number of factors ensuring the persistence of one-party rule in contemporary China

Scholarship on local governance in China in general and on the Chinese policy process in particular has expanded remarkably over the last four decades. Where earlier studies were mostly interested in grasping the dynamics of central-local relations, more specific features like performance evaluation systems or policy implementation processes have come under scholarly scrutiny over the course of time. New theoretical concepts have been introduced to explain phenomena pertaining to local governance, and this research has become ever more specialized. In this state-of-the art review, we trace the trajectories of research on the Chinese policy process in the reform era in two distinct periods before and after the inauguration of current CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping. By drawing on prominent theoretical and conceptual approaches to understanding and assessing the Chinese policy process in these two periods, we highlight the changes and continuities in local policymaking under Xi's "top-level design." Although most recent studies indicate increasing top-down centralization in the local Chinese state, it seems that the basic institutional prerequisites of the policy process have hardly been altered. Therefore, most of the older conceptual characterizations of local policymaking still very much hold water. Still, we do conclude by pointing to some so far understudied aspects of local policymaking in China.

Abstract The paper begins with the observation that today's world society exhibits a political regime bipolarity and suggests an interpretation, based on the sociological theories of inclusion and functional differentiation. We (1) distinguish democratic and authoritarian political regimes by identifying the different value patterns underlying collectively binding decision making. Democracy is understood as a political regime based on the 'autopoiesis' of its constitutive values, while in authoritarian regimes we observe a 'heterogenesis' of values. To this we (2) add the idea that modern states are characterized by the imperative of individual political inclusion. At the same time new patterns arise for the inclusion of collectivities. Concluding (3), we postulate that this approach allows the study of ongoing transformations of differentiation in both types of regimes. In this part, we present an overview of the hierarchy of levels of modern polities and the horizontal differentiation of subsystems and organizations.

AbstractThe heavy smog suffocating China's cities is increasingly being perceived as a threat by both the population and the authorities. Consequently, political action aiming at regulating ambient air pollution has become increasingly comprehensive and rigid in recent years. Even measures limiting consumption and production seem to become acceptable as China is facing an airpocalypse. Does this suggest a genesis of real "authoritarian environmentalism" (AE) in China? Taking this as a heuristic point of departure, we present findings from research on the implementation of air pollution control measures in Hangzhou city. We offer a critical examination of the concept of AE and, in particular, of local policy implementation strategies vis-à-vis the general public. Two measures in Hangzhou's air policy portfolio are analysed that reveal considerable variation: restrictions on the use of private cars and the (re)location of industrial facilities. Describing the conditions that have helped to produce different implementation strategies, we argue for different emphases in a potential Chinese model of AE. In a context where outcomes are sought at any cost, we observe more complexity and nuances than are usually captured by the AE concept.