Civil Service Reform in the People’s Republic of China: Another Mirage of the New Global Paradigm of Public Administration?

Abstract

The Chinese bureaucratic tradition: 'continuity and change' The phrase 'continuity and change' -conveying the notion that it is both desirable and feasible to preserve the best features of past arrangements even while embarking upon radical programmes of reform -is a particularly familiar one in the context of UK public administration, this being the title of a white paper on civil service reform published by the Conservative Prime Minister John Major's Government in the early 1990s. 1 But it is a phrase that seems particularly apposite in the context of Chinese reforms, given the longevity of the Chinese bureaucratic tradition -which can be traced back to the unification of China and the establishment of the Ch'in dynasty in 221 BC. The subsequent replacement of the practice of recruiting officials on the basis of their aristocratic status by an increasingly sophisticated system of competitive examinations (testing classical knowledge and general intelligence rather than specific or technical skills) foreshadowed an important element in Weberian bureaucratic theory and in the development of western ideas about bureaucratic recruitment -notably the post Northcote-Trevelyan modernization of UK civil service recruitment in the second half of the 19th century.Western 'New Public Management' (NPM) reform -discussed later in this article -has been, in part, a response to the perceived defects of traditional public bureaucracy. As explained in the concluding section of this article, the 'NPM' response to such perceived defects has varied a lot, even among western countries. But the general thrust of public service reforms has been to move away from a Weberian emphasis on hierarchy, legality and due process towards less regimented arrangements that place more emphasis upon quantifiable improvements in performance and service quality. Specific elements of the NPM agenda have included moves to slim down ('downsize') the aggregate size of state

Does Governance Cause Growth? Evidence from China

“…China's economic transformation is commonly associated with extensive improvements in its bureaucracy and governance mechanisms. Bureaucratic reforms were initiated as early as 1980 and significant changes to economic policy and governance institutions were undertaken from the early 1980s (Drewry & Chan, 2001; D. D. Li, 1998). Exceptional economic performance followed: China has now experienced almost 9 percent average annual growth in real GDP per capita for more than 30 years (World Bank, 2014), the longest sustained episode of super-rapid economic growth ever recorded (Pritchett & Summers, 2013).…”

Comparative Studies in Public Administration: Intellectual Challenges and Alternative Perspectives

“…Many of the elements that in the West have come to be known as belonging to the “Weberian bureaucracy” find their roots in the Chinese bureaucratic tradition (dating back to the establishment of the Ch'in dynasty in 221 BC) (Jacobs 1998). Nineteenth‐century British and Prussian public administration reformers took inspiration from the rationality and efficiency of the Chinese system (Drewry and Chan 2001). In contrast, in other parts of the world, imposing Western administrative concepts under colonial rule led to the erosion of precolonial systems of governance (Inyang 2008, 122).…”

Intent, Risks and Capability: Some Considerations on Rethinking Organizational Capability

“…It is not only advanced jurisdictions such as New Zealand (see, e.g., Casey, 2002) that have embarked on this exercise but developing countries are also now increasingly making results-based management a key component of public sector reforms. See, e.g., Root et al (2001) for a discussion of this in relation to Sri Lanka and Drewry and Chan (2001) in relation to China.…”