Reinventing Government in China

Abstract

The 1998 administrative reforms in China provide a pregnant context for comparative analysis of the “reinventing government” movement. Described in some detail, the reforms are compared with the recent administrative reform experience in the United States. Significant similarities are illuminated using the prisms of ideology, politics, history, bureaucracy, and economics. Insight emerges on the role of experience, leadership, and technical-political expertise in administrative development. The analysis concludes that the art and science of global public administration can be advanced through increased comparative analysis of non-Western developing systems with the more developed Western administrative states.

Examining China's triple-network convergence plan: Regulatory challenges and policy recommendations

“…The 1998 governmental reform and the failure of the first convergence Consistent with the global movement of reinventing government, the Chinese government initiated a bold revamping of its governmental system as part of its national efforts to reposition the economy in the face of increased global competition in 1998 (Worthley & King, 1999). The 1998 reform highlighted a streamlining of government, a removal of direct governmental control over profit-making enterprises, and an effort to move China in the direction of the "rule of law" (Lan, 1999).…”

Contending Approaches and Models for Rationalizing Chinese Public Organizations: The Case of Western China

“…These, however, are merely general observations. Our more in-depth analysis indicates that leadership's policy preferences, elite political struggles, and ecological changes in the past decades have had resulted in the adoption of specific model, including (1) the process model that emphasizes administrative procedural control and (2) the output model that focuses on performance-based control (Drewry & Chan, 2001;Worthley & Tsao, 1999), (3) the education model that stresses on popular or peer pressure to induce behavioral change, and (4) the authoritarian model that emphasizes generic elite control (Liu, 1976;Morgan, 1981;Uhalley, 1988). The process and output models are of the instrumental rationality approach; the education and authoritarian models are the political rationality.…”

“…was striving to rationalize her administrative system in the Weberian fashion, and Worthley and Tsao (1999) had reported that China is in the process of reinventing its government. Rigorous analysis by Lam and Chan (1996), however, have highlighted that reforms in China build on and reflect Chinese political and governance substances and processes, and thus the launching of reforms may be similar to the Western efforts in appearance but differs in nature and essence.…”

“…Rigorous analysis by Lam and Chan (1996), however, have highlighted that reforms in China build on and reflect Chinese political and governance substances and processes, and thus the launching of reforms may be similar to the Western efforts in appearance but differs in nature and essence. Chow (forthcoming) has analyzed such NPM measures as privatization and downsizing introduced by China's leadership, of which Worthley and Tsao (1999) had celebrated as indicators of China's reinventing its government. His findings are in congruence with Lam and Chan's (1996), highlighting what Harding (1983) had advised decades ago that researchers should avoid falling "in line with official Chinese interpretation of their own society" (p. 957), if they are to have an objective assessment of the reforms introduced and problems in emergence.…”

Improving Municipal Governance in China

“…Another is the development of regulatory institutions and capacities (Shue, 1995;Pearson, 2003;Mertha, 2005). A third concerns administrative restructuring of the bureaucracy, which involves attempting to shrink the bureaucracy, changing the relative importance of the various agencies (e.g., by eliminating some and creating others), and altering the sets of functions that agencies perform (Burns, 1993(Burns, , 2003Worthley and Tsao, 1999;Andrews-Speed, Dow, and Gao, 2000;Chan and Drewry, 2001;Yang, 2001). A fourth area centers on change in how state officials are managed, evaluated, and monitored (Burns, 1989;Tong, Straussman, and Broadnax, 1999;Brodsgaard, 2002Brodsgaard, , 2004Edin, 2003Edin, , 2004.…”