Abstract
The government system of China has been well known for its ability to mobilize its local leaders through career incentives. Does this system also encourage local policy innovation? This paper tests the relation between career advancement and local policy innovation with a self-compiled dataset on local innovation and local leaders’ career paths in 16 deputy-provincial level municipalities. We find a strong positive relationship between reported local policy innovation concerning economic issues and local leaders’ career advancement from 1980 to 2008, while the relationship between the number of innovations in other policy areas and promotion is insignificant. This finding deepens our understanding of both the promotion system for Chinese local leaders and motivations for local policy innovation.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
This letter was published in Li’s semi-autography and titled as “Achievement of reform is produced by many cadres and people”. Li Changchun [16], Tide of Reform in Liaoning
For example, while both Jiang Zemin and Zhu Rongji worked in Shanghai together, it’s hard to use the name “Shanghai Gang” to brand both.
Chongqing’s administrative rank was lifted up to ministry-provincial level in 1997. We exclude it from our sample since 1997.
Admittedly, not all municipalities had deputy-provincial administrative rank through the sampling years. It is as late as 1995 that official document has recognized these 16 cities as deputy-provincial level. However, historically, all these 16 municipalities have been treated differently especially in cadre management. A common practice is to have leaders with deputy-provincial administrative rank appointed to be party secretary and mayor for these cities.
The other is the magazine of Qiushi published twice every month.
We use two datasets to search reports in People’s Daily. People Daily Electronic database (1949–2003) compiled together by People’s Daily Agency, Green Apple Data Center; Newspaper Search Database (1998-now) provided by wisers.com. Consistence of the two datasets have been confirmed with the overlapping years from 1998 to 2003.
We didn’t differentiate local initiated innovations or top-down policy experiments, we define policy innovation as any attempts of trying something new. The search list includes the following words: dapo, gexin, shixing, shidian, chuangxin, shiyan, tansuo, xinbanfa, xinsilu, zhuanhuan
Formally all Chinese local leaders have a fixed term of three or five years subject to reelection, few actually follow the formal five-year cycle.
The one with 10 years tenure is Wang Guoping, then Party Secretary of Hangzhou from 2000 to 2010.
References
Bell, D.A. 2016. The China model: Political meritocracy and the limits of democracy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Bo, Z. 2002. Chinese provincial leaders: economic performance and political mobility since 1949. M.E. Sharpe: Armonk.
Cai, Y. 2004. Irresponsible state: local cadres and image-building in China. Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics 20 (4): 20–41.
Central Organization Department. 1979. Circular on Decision to Implementation Cadre Evalution System (Guanyu Shixing Ganbu Kaohe Zhidu de Yijian). Government Document
Central Organization Department. 1988. Circular on Experimenting Annual Evaluation System on Local Party and Government Leaders (Guanyu Shixing Difang Dangzheng Lingdao Ganbu Niandu Gongzuo Kaohe Zhidu de Tongzhi). Government Document
Dittmer, L. 1995. Chinese Informal Politics. The China Journal 34: 1–34.
Edin, M. 1998. Why Do Chinese Local Cadres Promote Growth? Institutional Incentives and Constraints of Local Cadres. Forum For Development Studies 1998 (1): 97–127.
Guo, G. 2007. Retrospective Economic Accountability under Authoritarianism. Political Research Quarterly 60 (3): 378–390.
Heilmann, S. 2008a. From Local Experiments to National Policy: The Origins of China’s Distinctive Policy Process (abstract). China Journal 59: 1–30.
Heilmann, S. 2008b. Policy experimentation in China’s economic rise. Studies in Comparative International Development (SCID) 43 (1): 1–26.
Heilmann, S., et al. 2013. National planning and local technology zones: Experimental governance in China's Torch Programme. The China Quarterly 216: 896–919.
Jia, R., et al. 2015. Political Selection in China: Complementary Roles of Connections and Performance. Journal of the European Economic Association 13 (4): 631–668.
Kostka, G., and X. Yu. 2015. Career backgrounds of municipal party secretaries in China: why do so few municipal party secretaries rise from the county level? Modern China 41 (5): 467–505.
Kung, J.K.-S., and S. Chen. 2011. The tragedy of the nomenklatura: Career incentives and political radicalism during China's Great Leap famine. American Political Science Review 105 (01): 27–45.
Landry, P. F. 2003. The Political Management of Mayors in Post-Deng China. The Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies 17: 31–58.
Li, C. 2014. Tide of reform in liaoning (Liaoshen Dali Gaige Chao). Beijing: People's Publishing House.
Li, C. and L. White. 1990. Elite transformation and modern change in Mainland China and Taiwan: Empirical Data and the Theory of Technocracy. China Quarterly 121: 1–35.
Lü, X., and P. Landry. 2014. Show Me the Money: Interjurisdiction Political Competition and Fiscal Extraction in China. American Political Science Review 108 (3): 706–722.
Landry, P.F. 2008. Decentralized authoritarianism in China: the Communist Party's control of local elites in the post-Mao era. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Landry, P.F., et al. 2017. Does performance matter? evaluating political selection along the chinese administrative ladder. Comparative Political Studies. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2452482.
Li, H., and L.-A. Zhou. 2005. Political Turnover and economic Performance: The incentive role of personal control in China. Journal of Public Economics 89: 1743–1762.
Mei, C., and Z. Liu. 2014. Experiment-based policy making or conscious policy design? The case of urban housing reform in China. Policy Sciences 47 (3): 321–337.
Nathan, A.J. 1973. A Factionalism Model for CCP Politics. The China Quarterly 53: 33–66.
O'Brien, K., and L. Li. 1999. Selective policy implementation in Rural China. Comparative Politics 31 (2): 167–186.
Olsen, J.P. 2015. Democratic order, autonomy, and accountability. Governance 28 (4): 425–440.
Opper, S., et al. 2015. Homophily in the career mobility of China’s political elite. Social Science Research 54: 332–352.
Pye, L.W. 1981. The dynamics of Chinese politics. Cambridge: Oelgeschlager Gunn & Hain.
Romzek, B.S., and M.J. Dubnick. 1987. Accountability in the public sector: Lessons from the Challenger tragedy. Public Administration Review 47: 227–238.
Shih, V. 2008. “Nauseating” displays of loyalty: Monitoring the factional Bargain through ideological campaigns in China. The Journal of Politics 70 (4): 1177–1192.
Shih, V., et al. 2012. Getting Ahead in the Communist Party: Explaining the Advancement of Central Committee Members in China. American Political Science Review 106 (1): 166–187.
Shirk, S.L. 1993. The political logic of economic reform in China. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Tao, R., et al. 2010. Can Economic Growth Brings Promotions? Challenges and Appraisal on the Theory of "Promotin Tournament". Management World 12: 13–26.
Teets, J.C. 2015. The Politics of Innovation in China: Local Officials as Policy Entrepreneurs. Issues and Studies 51 (2): 79.
Teiwes, F.C. 2001. Normal politics with Chinese characteristics. The China Journal 45: 69–82.
Tsai, K. 2004. Off Balance: the unintended consequences of Fiscal Federalism in China. Journal of Chinese Political Science 9 (2): 1–26.
Wallace, J.L. 2016. Juking the stats? Authoritarian information problems in China. British Journal of Political Science 46 (01): 11–29.
Xi, T., et al. 2015. Competence versus Incentive: Evidence from City Officials in China. China Center for Economic Research: Working Paper Series.
Yang, Q., and N. Zheng. 2013. Promotion Competetion of Chinese Local Leaders: Yard-stick Game, Tournament, or Qualification? Economic Research Journal 2013 (12): 27.
Zeng, J. 2015. Did Policy Experimentation in China Always Seek Efficiency? A case study of Wenzhou financial reform in 2012. Journal of Contemporary China 24 (92): 338–356.
Zhou, X. 2010. The institutional logic of collusion among local governments in China. Modern China 36 (1): 47–78.
Zhu, J. and D. Zhang. 2016. Weapons of the powerful: Authoritarian elite competition and politicized anticorruption in China. Comparative political studies 50 (9): 1186–1220.
Zhu, X. 2013. Mandate Versus Championship: Veritical government intervention and diffusion of innovation in public services in authoritarian China. Public Management Review. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2013.798028.
Zhu, X., and Y. Zhang. 2015. Political Mobility and Dynamic Diffusion of Innovation: The Spread of Municipal Pro-Business Administrative Reform in China. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 26 (3): 535–551.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Appendix
Appendix
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mei, C., Wang, X. Political Incentives and Local Policy Innovations in China. J OF CHIN POLIT SCI 22, 519–547 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11366-017-9513-8
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11366-017-9513-8