‘Constructing a New Socialist Countryside’ and Beyond: An Analytical Framework for Studying Policy Implementation and Political Stability in Contemporary China

Schubert, Gunter; Ahlers, Anna L.

doi:10.1007/s11366-010-9139-6

Cited by 17 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…Criteria, such as levels of economic and infrastructural development, are set to judge performance horizontally within bureaus and vertically between levels of the hierarchy (Ahlers and Schubert, 2009). These criteria are then subdivided into indicators such as the number of constructed new villages (Schubert and Ahlers, 2011). In this system, positive performance earns privileges and poor performance earns sanctions from higher levels of government (Schubert and Ahlers, 2011).…”

Section: Chinese Rural Development Policy and Governancementioning

confidence: 99%

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Governance of resettlement compensation and the cultural fix in rural China

Gomersall

2020

Environ Plan A

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Financial management of resettlement funding has always been problematic for governments and development agencies trying to mitigate the negative effects of moving people from one location to another. In China, Poverty Alleviation Resettlement attempts to rectify the shortcomings in policies designed for distributing compensation and ensuring funds reach their intended use with apparatuses of security. Governance technologies take the form of reimbursement subsidies, which mitigate the risk that funds will be corrupted or households misuse money, by reimbursing expenditures already made on village construction. These technologies convey the contradictory nature of Chinese rural development, as they employ neoliberal discourse to direct fiscal transfers from the central government to enterprising individuals, but also attempt poverty alleviation of rural societies’ most marginalized households. Resettlement technologies are therefore leading to uneven development while simultaneously claiming to adhere to transnational poverty alleviation norms. In this article, the Party-state applies a cultural fix to resolve contradictions in the development apparatus. The Party-state draws on historical governance norms to change the meaning of the corrupt official that receives disproportionate government assistance into the “ideal” all villages should emulate. In this way, the Chinese bureaucracy appropriates the power of local elites to guide conduct and achieve broader political economic goals.

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Section: Chinese Rural Development Policy and Governancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…These criteria are then subdivided into indicators such as the number of constructed new villages (Schubert and Ahlers, 2011). In this system, positive performance earns privileges and poor performance earns sanctions from higher levels of government (Schubert and Ahlers, 2011).…”

Section: Chinese Rural Development Policy and Governancementioning

confidence: 99%

Governance of resettlement compensation and the cultural fix in rural China

Gomersall

2020

Environ Plan A

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“…XNCJS-related project, performance, and cadre evaluation was conducted either by The Bureau of Rural Works acted as the authoritative center, not only overseeing and coordinating all aspects of XNCJS project implementation, but sometimes also the individual or departmental performance evaluations in a county. It directed the setting of the indicators and benchmarks and transferred this catalogue to the XNCJS Leading Small Group and the local Evaluation Committee 考核委员会 for a final decision (Ahlers and Schubert, 2009;Schubert and Ahlers, 2011).…”

Section: Managing Cadre and Performance Evaluationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effective Policy Implementation in China’s Local State

Ahlers

Schubert

2014

Modern China

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Effective policy implementation is a core component of the Chinese political system's adaptability and stability. A thorough investigation of local implementation mechanisms, however, is often hindered by an almost exclusive concentration on implementation efficiency. This article introduces a new analytical framework and suggests focusing on the interactions between the different administrative tiers-counties, townships, and villages-to understand local policy implementation in terms of procedural and outcome effectiveness. It argues that the triangle of central policy design, institutional constraints, and strategic agency of local implementers explains cases of effective policy implementation that can be observed throughout China. By way of studying the "Building of a New Socialist Countryside" in four cases, this article shows how effective policy implementation can be the result of what students of local governance have so far rather treated as obstructive factors, namely performance and cadre evaluation, financial scarcity, limited public participation, and the focus on models.

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“…Stability logic entails that any decisions and actions proposed by organizations (e.g. companies and public sectors) be scrutinized by relevant government agencies to ensure that they are consistent with the government's political ideology and enhance, or at least do not affect, the ruling legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) (Howell, 2012; Schubert and Ahlers, 2011). Any threat to the government's control in the social and economic spheres will be interfered with, neutralized, or terminated.…”

Section: Conceptualizing Hidden Resistance To Sra In Chinamentioning

confidence: 99%

Navigational space for the absence of sustainability assurance in China

Hidayah

Lyu

et al. 2022

AAAJ

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PurposeThis case study presents a critical analysis of why and how corporate managers in China are reluctant to adopt sustainability reporting assurance (SRA) provided by externally independent third-party assurers, despite the fact that it is acknowledged as a value-adding activity globally.Design/methodology/approachA longitudinal fieldwork case study was conducted from 2014 to 2019 in a Chinese central state-owned enterprise (CSOE), a pioneer in sustainability reporting practice since the mid-2000s, to collect first-hand empirical data on managerial perceptions of the adoption of external SRA. Semi-structured interviews with 25 managers involved in sustainability (reporting) practice were conducted. The interview data were triangulated with an analysis of archival documents and board meeting minutes pertaining to the undertakings of sustainability practices in the case study organization.FindingsOur empirical analysis suggests that while managers recognize the benefits of adopting external SRA in enhancing the legitimacy of sustainability accountability, they oppose SRA because of their deep-rooted allegiance to the dominant logic of sociopolitical stability in China. SRA is envisaged to risk the stability of the socialist ideology with which CSOEs are imbued. Therefore, any transformational approach to accepting a novel (foreign) practice must be molded to gain control and autonomy, thereby maintain the hegemony of stability logic. Instead of disregarding external verification, managers of our case SOE appear to harness sustainability reporting as a navigational space to engage in internally crafted alternative manners in order to resist the rationality of SRA.Originality/valueThe empirical analysis presents a nuanced explanation as to why internal managers have hitherto been reluctant to embrace the embedding of independent assurance into the sustainability reporting process. Our prolonged fieldwork provides ample context-specific, intra-organizational evidence regarding the absence of SRA in Chinese CSOEs, which warrants more attention given their considerable presence in the global economy. In addition, the empirical analysis contributes to our understanding of the managerial capture of sustainability issues in a specific context of state capitalism and how organizations and individuals in an authoritarian regime interpret and respond to novel discourses derived from distinct institutional settings.

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‘Constructing a New Socialist Countryside’ and Beyond: An Analytical Framework for Studying Policy Implementation and Political Stability in Contemporary China

Cited by 17 publications

References 58 publications

Governance of resettlement compensation and the cultural fix in rural China

Governance of resettlement compensation and the cultural fix in rural China

Effective Policy Implementation in China’s Local State

Navigational space for the absence of sustainability assurance in China

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