Pub Date : 2020-11-19DOI: 10.1080/23812346.2020.1846294
Fan Yang, Zhihan Zhang, Shizong Wang
Abstract This article examines how the Chinese government increases the effectiveness of policy implementation by resorting to citizen participation. Based on an in-depth case study of the waste classification policy implementation in county T, province Z, this article demonstrates three citizen-enlistment strategies applied in the local state: (1) local-elites enlistment, (2) social norms innovation, and (3) blurring the role boundaries between citizens and frontline bureaucrats. This article also illustrates the citizen-enlistment motivations of governments: (1) to increase the dynamic and controllable working staff in policy implementation, (2) to maintain a flexible social control system to reduce accountability pressure, and (3) to overcome information asymmetry by holding citizens responsible for their suggestions and claims. In general, the citizen-enlistment strategies, to some extent, facilitate the effectiveness of policy implementation in the local state.
{"title":"Enlisting citizens: forging the effectiveness of policy implementation in local China","authors":"Fan Yang, Zhihan Zhang, Shizong Wang","doi":"10.1080/23812346.2020.1846294","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23812346.2020.1846294","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article examines how the Chinese government increases the effectiveness of policy implementation by resorting to citizen participation. Based on an in-depth case study of the waste classification policy implementation in county T, province Z, this article demonstrates three citizen-enlistment strategies applied in the local state: (1) local-elites enlistment, (2) social norms innovation, and (3) blurring the role boundaries between citizens and frontline bureaucrats. This article also illustrates the citizen-enlistment motivations of governments: (1) to increase the dynamic and controllable working staff in policy implementation, (2) to maintain a flexible social control system to reduce accountability pressure, and (3) to overcome information asymmetry by holding citizens responsible for their suggestions and claims. In general, the citizen-enlistment strategies, to some extent, facilitate the effectiveness of policy implementation in the local state.","PeriodicalId":45091,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Chinese Governance","volume":"7 1","pages":"400 - 417"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2020-11-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/23812346.2020.1846294","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43456476","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-11-12DOI: 10.1080/23812346.2020.1844461
Zhihong Yu
Advocacy is one of the most important functions of nonprofit organizations. Since entering the era of Internet known as Web 2.0 that allows greater user interactivity and user-generated content, th...
{"title":"The quest for attention: nonprofit advocacy in a social media age","authors":"Zhihong Yu","doi":"10.1080/23812346.2020.1844461","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23812346.2020.1844461","url":null,"abstract":"Advocacy is one of the most important functions of nonprofit organizations. Since entering the era of Internet known as Web 2.0 that allows greater user interactivity and user-generated content, th...","PeriodicalId":45091,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Chinese Governance","volume":"6 1","pages":"327 - 329"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2020-11-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/23812346.2020.1844461","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48255657","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-11-02DOI: 10.1080/23812346.2020.1830569
Chong Zhang, L. Liao
Abstract The call for citizen participation is a prominent theme in academic, public, and political discussions. Taking the S Village transformation project in Guangzhou City as a case study, this article examines how urban planners, as experts, contributed to improving citizen participation in local community planning. The planners constructed forums for expert-citizen interaction in which they provided residents with professional knowledge, performed multiple roles as both experts and communicators, and promoted capacity building; citizens were largely mobilized to perform active participation in this transformation project. The findings show that planners reframed the transformation plan based on villagers’ community identity towards the village history, which played an important role in reaching a mutual agreement regarding community development. The article echoes the argument that such professional groups have, as planners, emerged as mediators linking the government and citizens in Chinese community governance and discovers their role as an engine for promoting villagers’ innovation and self-development capacity. However, the study reveals that experts’ role in supporting citizens’ participation is restricted due to such factors as a lack of institutional support and high operating costs. More research needs to be done to explore how experts could better facilitate civic participation in different contexts.
{"title":"The active participation in a community transformation project in China: constructing new forums for expert-citizen interaction","authors":"Chong Zhang, L. Liao","doi":"10.1080/23812346.2020.1830569","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23812346.2020.1830569","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The call for citizen participation is a prominent theme in academic, public, and political discussions. Taking the S Village transformation project in Guangzhou City as a case study, this article examines how urban planners, as experts, contributed to improving citizen participation in local community planning. The planners constructed forums for expert-citizen interaction in which they provided residents with professional knowledge, performed multiple roles as both experts and communicators, and promoted capacity building; citizens were largely mobilized to perform active participation in this transformation project. The findings show that planners reframed the transformation plan based on villagers’ community identity towards the village history, which played an important role in reaching a mutual agreement regarding community development. The article echoes the argument that such professional groups have, as planners, emerged as mediators linking the government and citizens in Chinese community governance and discovers their role as an engine for promoting villagers’ innovation and self-development capacity. However, the study reveals that experts’ role in supporting citizens’ participation is restricted due to such factors as a lack of institutional support and high operating costs. More research needs to be done to explore how experts could better facilitate civic participation in different contexts.","PeriodicalId":45091,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Chinese Governance","volume":"7 1","pages":"372 - 399"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2020-11-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/23812346.2020.1830569","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43911074","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-09-14DOI: 10.1080/23812346.2020.1813395
E. Ahmad
Abstract The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed strengths and weaknesses of different governing models around the world. In all cases, national coordination and financing is needed together with local information generation, early warning, as well as using big data to identify problem clusters, track, trace and quarantine potentially infectious people. Also, primary health care at the local level has to be the basis for actions, as well as local support for affected households. In China, delays in information generation and local actions were compensated by prompt central response, coordination and management of the pandemic. This points to the need to further strengthen the Chinese Governance Model. In many other countries, a lack of coordinated federal or national actions and financing, and weak coordination with subnational administrations has led to catastrophic outcomes. The national coordination actions need to be replicated with stronger international coordination. The need for reforms also is relevant for achieving sustainable growth in the future at both national and global levels, including also risks from climate change.
{"title":"Multilevel responses to risks, shocks and pandemics: lessons from the evolving Chinese governance model","authors":"E. Ahmad","doi":"10.1080/23812346.2020.1813395","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23812346.2020.1813395","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed strengths and weaknesses of different governing models around the world. In all cases, national coordination and financing is needed together with local information generation, early warning, as well as using big data to identify problem clusters, track, trace and quarantine potentially infectious people. Also, primary health care at the local level has to be the basis for actions, as well as local support for affected households. In China, delays in information generation and local actions were compensated by prompt central response, coordination and management of the pandemic. This points to the need to further strengthen the Chinese Governance Model. In many other countries, a lack of coordinated federal or national actions and financing, and weak coordination with subnational administrations has led to catastrophic outcomes. The national coordination actions need to be replicated with stronger international coordination. The need for reforms also is relevant for achieving sustainable growth in the future at both national and global levels, including also risks from climate change.","PeriodicalId":45091,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Chinese Governance","volume":"7 1","pages":"291 - 319"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/23812346.2020.1813395","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48302137","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-08-31DOI: 10.1080/23812346.2020.1807889
Karl Yan
Abstract The Railroad Economic Belt (REB, yilu yidai) was initiated by the China Railway Corporation to support the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The goal of REB is to enhance interconnectivity and deepen the BRI’s infiltration through the export of ‘China Standards’ (zhongguo biaozhun) in railway development. This paper focuses on China’s export of the ‘China Standard’ in highspeed rail and the further integration of Eurasia through the China Railway Express (zhong’ou banlie). It examines their implications on the global highspeed rail market and global logistics governance, respectively. Indeed, China can become a rule-maker in some functional domains of global governance. This paper argues that the expansion of Chinese standards has been done through a ‘top-level design’ approach. Chinese economic statecraft focused on strengthening policy guidance and power concentration at the central level. Standards that are competing in nature face daunting challenges as they have receive backlashes from international competitors. On the other hand, those that are complementary have been much more receptive to international actors.
{"title":"Rethinking China’s quest for railway standardization: competition and complementation","authors":"Karl Yan","doi":"10.1080/23812346.2020.1807889","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23812346.2020.1807889","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The Railroad Economic Belt (REB, yilu yidai) was initiated by the China Railway Corporation to support the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The goal of REB is to enhance interconnectivity and deepen the BRI’s infiltration through the export of ‘China Standards’ (zhongguo biaozhun) in railway development. This paper focuses on China’s export of the ‘China Standard’ in highspeed rail and the further integration of Eurasia through the China Railway Express (zhong’ou banlie). It examines their implications on the global highspeed rail market and global logistics governance, respectively. Indeed, China can become a rule-maker in some functional domains of global governance. This paper argues that the expansion of Chinese standards has been done through a ‘top-level design’ approach. Chinese economic statecraft focused on strengthening policy guidance and power concentration at the central level. Standards that are competing in nature face daunting challenges as they have receive backlashes from international competitors. On the other hand, those that are complementary have been much more receptive to international actors.","PeriodicalId":45091,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Chinese Governance","volume":"7 1","pages":"111 - 136"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2020-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/23812346.2020.1807889","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"60123598","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-08-25DOI: 10.1080/23812346.2020.1809272
Shuanping Dai, Markus Taube
Abstract Ambiguity in policy formulation is a strategy setup with multifarious institutional flexibilities that maintain the credibility of functioning institutions. In the framework of the ‘credibility thesis’ as introduced by Peter Ho, this article posits that Chinese policymakers intentionally or unintentionally made a smart choice in coining the highly ambiguous term ‘TVEs’ for promoting institutional reforms on property rights, and providing a unique buffering effect for a (comparatively) smooth policy transition towards increasingly liberal reform agendas. Furthermore, TVEs’ content was evolving through time and consistently adapting to the interactions among various stakeholders in the reform process. The conceptual ‘3C’ model of strategic ambiguity in policy formulation elaborated by the evidence of TVEs might be an approach for China’s policy studies.
{"title":"Strategic ambiguity in policy formulation: exploring the function of the term “township and village enterprises” in china’s industrial ownership reforms","authors":"Shuanping Dai, Markus Taube","doi":"10.1080/23812346.2020.1809272","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23812346.2020.1809272","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Ambiguity in policy formulation is a strategy setup with multifarious institutional flexibilities that maintain the credibility of functioning institutions. In the framework of the ‘credibility thesis’ as introduced by Peter Ho, this article posits that Chinese policymakers intentionally or unintentionally made a smart choice in coining the highly ambiguous term ‘TVEs’ for promoting institutional reforms on property rights, and providing a unique buffering effect for a (comparatively) smooth policy transition towards increasingly liberal reform agendas. Furthermore, TVEs’ content was evolving through time and consistently adapting to the interactions among various stakeholders in the reform process. The conceptual ‘3C’ model of strategic ambiguity in policy formulation elaborated by the evidence of TVEs might be an approach for China’s policy studies.","PeriodicalId":45091,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Chinese Governance","volume":"6 1","pages":"232 - 256"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2020-08-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/23812346.2020.1809272","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48816410","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-08-24DOI: 10.1080/23812346.2020.1809312
Lei Guo, Yuhao Ba
Abstract While the literature generally acknowledges that target groups affect policy implementation, we argue that a more detailed investigation of the mechanisms and factors associated with such effect is necessary. Drawing on the Ambiguity-Conflict Model, we explore how target groups’ perceived policy ambiguity and conflict relate to the implementation of Corporate Employee Pension (CEP) policies in China. Empirically, we utilize a unique sample of all firms listed on China’s A-stock market from 2008 to 2014 and hypothesize that target groups’ perceived policy ambiguity and conflict negatively associate with the implementation outcomes of the CEP policies in China. Our results confirm such a relationship and suggest that the implementation outcomes, from most favorable to least favorable, follow the order: Administrative Implementation, Political Implementation or Experimental Implementation, and Symbolic Implementation. Such results are robust to both state-owned and non-state-owned enterprises. Our research offers implications for both scholars and practitioners of pension policies in China.
{"title":"Ambiguity and conflict in pension policies implementation: evidence from China","authors":"Lei Guo, Yuhao Ba","doi":"10.1080/23812346.2020.1809312","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23812346.2020.1809312","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract While the literature generally acknowledges that target groups affect policy implementation, we argue that a more detailed investigation of the mechanisms and factors associated with such effect is necessary. Drawing on the Ambiguity-Conflict Model, we explore how target groups’ perceived policy ambiguity and conflict relate to the implementation of Corporate Employee Pension (CEP) policies in China. Empirically, we utilize a unique sample of all firms listed on China’s A-stock market from 2008 to 2014 and hypothesize that target groups’ perceived policy ambiguity and conflict negatively associate with the implementation outcomes of the CEP policies in China. Our results confirm such a relationship and suggest that the implementation outcomes, from most favorable to least favorable, follow the order: Administrative Implementation, Political Implementation or Experimental Implementation, and Symbolic Implementation. Such results are robust to both state-owned and non-state-owned enterprises. Our research offers implications for both scholars and practitioners of pension policies in China.","PeriodicalId":45091,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Chinese Governance","volume":"7 1","pages":"320 - 339"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2020-08-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/23812346.2020.1809312","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44955742","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-08-19DOI: 10.1080/23812346.2020.1803036
Mengshuang Du
Abstract The frequent occurrences of financial fraud in listed companies have had a serious impact on the stable development of the capital market. The Chinese company, Luckin Coffee, listed in the USA, recently confessed to fabricating transactions worth RMB2.2 billion and has received a delisting notice from NASDAQ. It can be seen that the detection and analysis of financial fraud behavior is very important not only for the internal governance of companies and for their external investors but also for regulatory agencies. This article uses a research method combining normative analysis with empirical research, utilizes a targeted selection of data from the listed companies penalized due to fictitious profits, uses the CRIME theory as the basis for normative analysis, and establishes a financial fraud identification model by means of empirical analysis. Finally, based on the research results of this article, we propose rational governance measures for countering the problems of fraud in financial statements of listed companies.
{"title":"Corporate governance: five-factor theory-based financial fraud identification","authors":"Mengshuang Du","doi":"10.1080/23812346.2020.1803036","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23812346.2020.1803036","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The frequent occurrences of financial fraud in listed companies have had a serious impact on the stable development of the capital market. The Chinese company, Luckin Coffee, listed in the USA, recently confessed to fabricating transactions worth RMB2.2 billion and has received a delisting notice from NASDAQ. It can be seen that the detection and analysis of financial fraud behavior is very important not only for the internal governance of companies and for their external investors but also for regulatory agencies. This article uses a research method combining normative analysis with empirical research, utilizes a targeted selection of data from the listed companies penalized due to fictitious profits, uses the CRIME theory as the basis for normative analysis, and establishes a financial fraud identification model by means of empirical analysis. Finally, based on the research results of this article, we propose rational governance measures for countering the problems of fraud in financial statements of listed companies.","PeriodicalId":45091,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Chinese Governance","volume":"6 1","pages":"1 - 19"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2020-08-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/23812346.2020.1803036","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46464955","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-08-04DOI: 10.1080/23812346.2020.1802212
Yutong Si
Abstract Existing research on the targeted poverty alleviation program in China struggles to explain the dynamics of policy implementation. This article incorporates individual-level factors such as street-level bureaucrats’ discretion and behaviors with institutional elements, thus combining structure-centered and actor-centered approaches. The data utilized is from 19 semi-structured interviews with township officials, local village cadres, and villagers located in an eastern province in China. By identifying and coding the policy perspectives of ‘street-level bureaucrats’ (i.e. village cadres in this case) through a two by two factorial table (combinations of the identifiability and the participation willingness of the target population), this study conceptualizes the policy output of ‘behaviors of implementers’ to categorize the policy implementation outcomes of the program. The four policy implementation patterns identified are supportive policy implementation, passive policy implementation, unsustainable policy implementation, and performative policy implementation. By isolating these four policy implementation patterns, this research provides insights on local governance and policy implementation in contemporary rural China.
{"title":"Implementing targeted poverty alleviation: a policy implementation typology","authors":"Yutong Si","doi":"10.1080/23812346.2020.1802212","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23812346.2020.1802212","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Existing research on the targeted poverty alleviation program in China struggles to explain the dynamics of policy implementation. This article incorporates individual-level factors such as street-level bureaucrats’ discretion and behaviors with institutional elements, thus combining structure-centered and actor-centered approaches. The data utilized is from 19 semi-structured interviews with township officials, local village cadres, and villagers located in an eastern province in China. By identifying and coding the policy perspectives of ‘street-level bureaucrats’ (i.e. village cadres in this case) through a two by two factorial table (combinations of the identifiability and the participation willingness of the target population), this study conceptualizes the policy output of ‘behaviors of implementers’ to categorize the policy implementation outcomes of the program. The four policy implementation patterns identified are supportive policy implementation, passive policy implementation, unsustainable policy implementation, and performative policy implementation. By isolating these four policy implementation patterns, this research provides insights on local governance and policy implementation in contemporary rural China.","PeriodicalId":45091,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Chinese Governance","volume":"5 1","pages":"439 - 454"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2020-08-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/23812346.2020.1802212","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46457602","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-08-01DOI: 10.1080/23812346.2020.1796411
Holly Snape, W. Wang
Abstract This paper proposes a new agenda for research on Chinese politics that overcomes the obscuring effect of the ubiquitous ‘party-state’ construct, finds a substantive place for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and thereby reveals dynamics of the interplay between the Party, society and state that otherwise remain hidden. Since the 1980s, the state-society relationship has been the subject of extensive scholarship. Yet most such work treats the CCP as little more than the assumed and elusive source of power behind the state. We show why, in conceptualizing and theorizing this one-party state’s state-society relationship, it is imperative to separate ‘Party’ from ‘state,’ to bring the former under close scrutiny, and to do so in a way that accounts for the multidimensional, multidirectional interplay between state, society and Party. We combine a historical perspective with analysis of political documents and discourse to demonstrate how research toward this new agenda might be pursued. By doing so, we offer examples of the dimensions and dynamics of governance processes, such as tensions between Party and state imperatives, the implications of Party reliance on the state to influence society, and the possible spaces for actor agency that, without this proposed shift, go ignored or misinterpreted.
{"title":"Finding a place for the Party: debunking the “party-state” and rethinking the state-society relationship in China’s one-party system","authors":"Holly Snape, W. Wang","doi":"10.1080/23812346.2020.1796411","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23812346.2020.1796411","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper proposes a new agenda for research on Chinese politics that overcomes the obscuring effect of the ubiquitous ‘party-state’ construct, finds a substantive place for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and thereby reveals dynamics of the interplay between the Party, society and state that otherwise remain hidden. Since the 1980s, the state-society relationship has been the subject of extensive scholarship. Yet most such work treats the CCP as little more than the assumed and elusive source of power behind the state. We show why, in conceptualizing and theorizing this one-party state’s state-society relationship, it is imperative to separate ‘Party’ from ‘state,’ to bring the former under close scrutiny, and to do so in a way that accounts for the multidimensional, multidirectional interplay between state, society and Party. We combine a historical perspective with analysis of political documents and discourse to demonstrate how research toward this new agenda might be pursued. By doing so, we offer examples of the dimensions and dynamics of governance processes, such as tensions between Party and state imperatives, the implications of Party reliance on the state to influence society, and the possible spaces for actor agency that, without this proposed shift, go ignored or misinterpreted.","PeriodicalId":45091,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Chinese Governance","volume":"5 1","pages":"477 - 502"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2020-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/23812346.2020.1796411","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44108618","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}