Competing logics and reform strategies in local reform: A case study of administrative licensing reform in China

Abstract

How to balance the market and the government to promote local economic development and provide sufficient public services has always been a challenging issue for leaders, in face of the existence of varied interests and values of different stakeholders. Conflicting values between the market and the government are directly related to the competing logics between market orientation and bureaucratic/administrative dominance. Since China's transition from the planned economy or government dominance to marketization in 1978, a series of national and local innovations has been launched. Among those reforms, policy entrepreneurs played a critical role. Administrative licensing reform was one of key changes from the planned economy to the marketized economy. Through a local case in administrative licensing reform, this study explores how a policy entrepreneur at local level applied reform strategies to balance conflicting values and constrain the self-interested bureaucracy to achieve the marketization reform.