China has traditionally been held up around the world as the archetype of centralised governance and a top-down system of public administration. But to what extent does this remain true of modern China? This book provides an updated perspective on modern China through a series of cutting edge, original studies focusing on public administration in China.
The book opens with an overview of the key political institutions and the evolution of public administration research in China, followed by two distinct sections. Part I contains studies focusing on power, governance, and administration. Part II focuses on ‘what works’ in solving wicked problems in Chinese society. The volume shows that China has seen some localisation and decentralisation, alongside experiments with collaboration and networked-based policy making. However, the system of governance and public administration remains innately top-down and centralised with the centre holding strong policy levers and control over society. As the pandemic revealed, this statist approach provided both governing opportunities and disadvantages.
The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Policy Studies.
China has traditionally been held around the world as architype of centralised governance and top-down system of public administration. But to what extent does this remain true of modern China? This book provides updated perspective on modern China through a series of cutting edge, original studies focusing on public administration in China.
Introduction: Governance and public administration in China: the
evolution of a polity and a discipline Part 1: Power, governance and public
administration
1. Networked environmental governance: formal and informal
collaborative networks in local China
2. More Government, less
Governance: Chinese public employees preferences for governing public
service delivery
3. Policy coordination in the talent war to achieve economic
upgrading: the case of four Chinese cities
4. Government strategies in
addressing three protests against PX plants in urban China: comparing cases
using a most-similar-system design
5. Government annual report: decision
usefulness, information accessibility and policy communication efficiency
Observations from 19 Chinese cities
6. Punctuations and diversity: exploring
dynamics of attention allocation in Chinas E-government agenda Part 2: What
works with wicked problems
7. Government size and citizen satisfaction in
China: evidence that accommodates two contrasting views
8. Towards effective
mobilization of social participation: from an instrumental approach to a
value-oriented approach in China
9. The relationship between the application
and effects of science and its influencing factors: an empirical study in
northern China
10. Explaining social insurance participation: the importance
of the social construction of target groups in China
11. Campaign-style
crisis regime: how China responded to the shock of COVID-19
Toby S. James is Professor of Politics and Public Policy at the University of East Anglia, UK. He is Editor-in-Chief of Policy Studies and Co-Director of the Electoral Integrity Project. His most recent books are The Trump Administration: The Presidents Legacy Within and Beyond America and Electoral Integrity and Covid-19: Lessons from and International Crisis.
Wei Liu is Associate Professor at the School of Public Administration and Policy at the Renmin University of China, Beijing, China. Her areas of research expertise are local government innovation and diffusion, non-profit management, global governance, and China politics.
Caixia Man is a PhD candidate at the University of East Anglia, UK, and at the Southern University of Science and Technology, China. Her research focuses on China politics and environmental governance through an interdisciplinary perspective and approach.
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