Strategic Modelling: “Building a New Socialist Countryside” in Three Chinese Counties

Abstract

Models, pilots and experiments are considered distinctive features of the Chinese policy process. However, empirical studies on local modelling practices are rare. This article analyses the ways in which three rural counties in three different provinces engage in strategies of modelling and piloting to implement the central government's "Building a New Socialist Countryside" (shehuizhuyi xinnongcun jianshe) programme. It explains how county and township governments apply these strategies and to what effect. It also highlights the scope and limitations of local models and pilots as useful mechanisms for spurring national development. The authors plead for a fresh look at local modelling practices, arguing that these can tell us much about the realities of governance in rural China today.The Chinese countryside has always been subject to extensive campaigning, experimenting and modelling. The larger experimentation projects and piloting in the run-up to the rural tax-for-fee reform (RTFR), new rural cooperative medical insurance and new modes of land rights management (for example, tudi liuzhuan 土地流转) have been extensively investigated. However, perhaps owing to the well-founded scepticism that is shown towards models of any kind in the Chinese countryside, 1 the everyday, small-scale piloting and modelling practices that comprise distinctive local government tasks in rural China have not, up to now, drawn much scholarly attention.* We would like to thank are various terms that can be translated as "model," such as shifan, shidian, mofan and yangban. These terms are basically used interchangeably but may bear different meanings in different localities, or at different levels of government. Based on our field experience, we distinguish between test, pilot or experimental sites (shidian), demonstration villages (shifancun) and emulation villages ( yangbancun, mofancun). We further distinguish between "modelling" as a specific strategy of local policy implementation, and "models" as showcases of best practice solutions. 7 By effectiveness, we mean 1) that cadres take local development blueprints seriously, and 2) that policy implementation creates win-win situations for all parties concerned: county and township cadres, upper government levels and villagers. Hence, effective policy implementation is not measured against "objective" benchmarks of what would be the best (or most efficient) solutions for the Chinese countryside. See Schubert and Ahlers 2012.

Betting on the strong: Local government resource allocation in China's poverty counties

“…This reflects a broader notion in China that model villages will lead rural development, also described as "showcasing" (Smith, 2009;Ahlers and Schubert, 2013). The problem with this approach is that it is unclear how model villages are supposed to be emulated by others (Ahlers and Schubert, 2009), particularly by those that are not advantaged in terms of access to good natural resources, a strong economy, good physical capital or guanxi (personal networks) with local officials.…”

“…Shortterm visits to collect information from local officials typically result in poor quality data that reflects official discourse and little else, whereas opportunities for longer-term visits to collect richer data can only be facilitated through local contacts who facilitate access to field sites and to interviewees (Hansen, 2006;Smith, 2013). These relationships are also critical in terms of accessing poorer, more remote villages: as others have noted, researchers are "encouraged" by local officials to leave aside these villages and concentrate their research in more developed villages (Ahlers and Schubert, 2013). For these reasons, Ji County was not selected randomly, but was chosen based on personal contacts with Shanxi Normal University in Linfen and the County Environmental Protection Office in Ji County.…”

China's Campaign to Build a New Socialist Countryside: Village Modernization, Peasant Councils, and the Ganzhou Model of Rural Development

“…To become an official NSC site, 85 per cent of villagers must sign an application submitted to the township. For cadres seeking promotion, however, the goal is 100 per cent 43 Thøgersen 2009;Ahlers andSchubert 2013. 44 Gannan Daily News Group 2009, 60;Liu, Moyan 2006, 165-66.…”

“…68 Interview with Pan Yiyang, Ganzhou, 23 June 2010. 69 On local variation, seeAhlers and Schubert 2013. 70 Ganzhou NSC Leading Group 2010, 18-25.…”

Building the New Socialist Countryside: Tracking Public Policy and Public Opinion Changes in China

“… 7 For example, Ahlers and Schubert 2013; Ahlers 2014; Ahlers and Schubert 2015; Su 2009; Harwood 2013. …”