This book charts the twists and turns in the change processes of a recent phase of an old practice in China: state extraction from the rural population. Using extensive interview data with local and central bureaucrats, Li's findings highlight the role of parallel developments and agency in the change process, as well as the prevalence of contingency and uncertainty. It also elegantly blends the narrative of the rural tax and administrative reforms with theoretical discussions to deepen our understanding of policy process and institutional change in 21st century China.
The international aid community has advocated governance reforms as a necessary complement to economic aid to developing countries. The resultant Good Governance Agenda has been criticised for its ahistorical bias. The empirical case studies reported in this book further illustrate the limitations by showing the complex logics of governance reforms and their relations with development in the Asian context. The analysis highlights the importance of taking full notice of the Asian reform experiences in the ongoing reflection over the global institutional and development agenda. The message is not to deny the need for governance reforms, or the utility of international learning and sharing of experiences. Global development will benefit, however, from a better understanding of the linkages between governance reforms and the diverse historical conditions they are embedded, in both developing or the advanced economies. This book was published as a special issue of Journal of Contemporary Asia.
Centre and Provinces: China 1978-93 goes beyond the dominant state capacity paradigm to argue for an interactive model to explain the political relations between the central and provincial governments in contemporary China. The uni-dimensional, centrist perspective of the state capacity paradigm has failed to adequately explain the coexistence of central and provincial power, and to anticipate circumstances of change. In this book a hybrid rational-choice cum institutional approach highlights the mutual power of both the Centre and the provinces. each party, the Centre or the provinces, imposes structural constraints upon the other. Power is not a zero-sum game. The cases of Shanghai and Guangdong, important resourceful provinces under very different central policy contexts, contrast possible interactions between central policy and provincial choice. Conflicts amidst a context of mutual dependence necessitate compromise on both sides, and qualitative changes to centreprovince relations as a result may well have long-term implications for wider political processes.
This book examines questions of change and inertia in the context of the longstanding grievances over excessive taxation in rural China. How can some changes be sustained, whilst others cannot? How can a longstanding administrative practice be changed or even terminated, especially when previous attempts at change have failed? Using extensive interview data with local and central bureaucrats, Li's findings highlight the role of parallel developments and agency in the change process, as well as the prevalence of contingency and uncertainty. It also elegantly blends the narrative of the rural tax and administrative reforms with theoretical discussions to deepen our understanding of policy process and institutional change in 21st century China. Despite the authoritarian political system, the Chinese state-in-action which emerges from this book sees actions stemming from both the central and local levels, mediated by strategic design as well as contingency. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of Chinese Studies, political science and policy and development studies.
Centre and Provinces: China 1978-93 goes beyond the dominant state capacity paradigm to argue for an interactive model to explain the political relations between the central and provincial governments in contemporary China. The uni-dimensional, centrist perspective of the state capacity paradigm has failed to adequately explain the coexistence of central and provincial power, and to anticipate circumstances of change. In this book a hybrid rational-choice cum institutional approach highlights the mutual power of both the Centre and the provinces. each party, the Centre or the provinces, imposes structural constraints upon the other. Power is not a zero-sum game. The cases of Shanghai and Guangdong, important resourceful provinces under very different central policy contexts, contrast possible interactions between central policy and provincial choice. Conflicts amidst a context of mutual dependence necessitate compromise on both sides, and qualitative changes to centreprovince relations as a result may well have long-term implications for wider political processes.
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