The role of the paired assistance policy (PAP) in facilitating recovery after the Wenchuan earthquake in China on 12 May 2008 is best analysed from a network perspective. This paper makes five assumptions to explore the relationship, and then draws on three additional cases to examine them. The key findings support all five assumptions. First, the interactions of authority compliance initiated the PAP, and second, the interactions of resource input significantly contributed to rapid reconstruction following the earthquake. Third, the interactions of knowledge transfer supported social system recovery, and fourth, the interactions of benefit reciprocity laid the foundation for sustainable recovery. Fifth, by contrast, the interactions of performance comparison caused suboptimal overfunding of particular public infrastructure projects and reduced local selfreliance to some extent. Finally, suggestions are made to improve the policy implications of extending the use of the PAP in other administrative contexts. The PAP could become an even more important policy device in the future.
Long-term outcomes and collaborative governance are particularly worthy of discussion when examining the recovery process from natural disasters. In the long and dynamic processes of recovery, how do the primary participants responsible for recovery adapt and change to meet social and economic objectives? This paper argues that the approach to recovery following the Wenchuan Earthquake in China experienced a transformation from paired assistance under centralized political mobilization to collaborative networks. Based on an in-depth case study of the Shanghai-Dujiangyan Paired Assistance Policy, we find that recovery from the Wenchuan Earthquake can be demarcated and described in terms of three stages involving government-oriented project aid, contract-oriented industrial redevelopment, and network-oriented collaborative governance. Four determinants contributed to these transformation processes: (1) The central government was promoted as the responsible entity for guiding recovery efforts from the catastrophe, and the effective political mobilization under the Paired Assistance Policy (PAP) and interactions between subnational assisting governments ensured the timeliness, diversity, and quality of aid projects; (2) industry recovery policies provided the policy environment for enterprises to participate in industrial recovery, and beneficial reciprocity became the key attraction for outside private enterprises to participate in the industrial recovery of Dujiangyan; (3) the participation of social organizations as emergent organizations in the recovery contributed to the formation of collaborative networks; and (4) the trust, friendship, and mutually beneficial relationships that were developed over the 3-year term of the PAP provided a strong foundation for the formation of collaborative networks, which were essential to facilitating longer term recovery.
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