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Central Control and Local Discretion in China: Leadership and Implementation during Post-Mao Decollectivization

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  • Chung, Jae Ho

    (Seoul National University)

Abstract

This book analyses the decollectivization reform in China during the early 1980s in order to gauge the impact of post-Mao decentralization on central control and provincial discretion. The volume challenges the notion that the decision to decentralize administrative authority ipso facto produces local discretion properly keyed to local conditions. In fact, outcomes often differ from the intended goals. While, generally, local interests and central-local clientilistic networks determine the policy responses of the provinces, bureaucratic careerism also plays a crucial role. In the case of post-Mao decollectivization, national-level analyses suggest that a majority of provinces adopted household farming neither too quickly nor too slowly, since both 'pioneering' and 'resisting' entailed potentially enormous political risks. Once Beijing's preference appeared firmly fixed, however, they all quickly bandwagoned by popularizing the policy as swiftly as possible. Three detailed case studies of Anhui as a pioneer, Shandong as a bandwagoner, and Heilongjiang as a resister further highlight the evolutionary process in which provincial variations came to be replaced by uniform compliance imposed by Beijing. Theoretically, this study contends that the overall scope of local discretion is circumscribed by the dominant norms and incentive relations embedded in the implementation dynamics. Methodologically, the book employs a combination of aggregate analyses and comparative case studies. Empirically, on the basis of newly available materials (including classified documents) and interviews, it challenges the 'peasant-power' school which has somehow allowed local governments to evaporate in its descriptions of post-Mao decollectivization.

Suggested Citation

  • Chung, Jae Ho, 2000. "Central Control and Local Discretion in China: Leadership and Implementation during Post-Mao Decollectivization," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198297772.
  • Handle: RePEc:oxp:obooks:9780198297772
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    Cited by:

    1. Shiuh-Shen Chien & Ian Gordon, 2008. "Territorial Competition in China and the West," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(1), pages 31-49.
    2. Shengmin Sun & Qiang Chen, 2020. "Household responsibility system and China's agricultural: Growth revisited: Addressing endogenous institutional change," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(4), pages 537-558, October.
    3. Gibson, John, 2020. "Aggregate and distributional impacts of China’s household responsibility system," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 64(1), January.
    4. Shiuh-Shen Chien, 2007. "Institutional Innovations, Asymmetric Decentralization, and Local Economic Development: A Case Study of Kunshan, in Post-Mao China," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 25(2), pages 269-290, April.
    5. Alfred M Wu, 2019. "The logic of basic education provision and public goods preferences in Chinese fiscal federalism," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(12), pages 1-15, December.
    6. Bai, Ying & Kung, James Kai-sing, 2014. "The shaping of an institutional choice: Weather shocks, the Great Leap Famine, and agricultural decollectivization in China," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 1-26.
    7. Shuo Chen & Yaohui Peng & Danli Wang, 2024. "Communism and patricide: Collectivization and domestic violence in 1960s China," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 77(2), pages 703-727, May.
    8. Liang Ma, 2014. "Diffusion and Assimilation of Government Microblogging: Evidence from Chinese cities," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(2), pages 274-295, February.
    9. Wang, Ying & Chan, Raymond K.H., 2015. "Autonomy and control: The struggle of minban schools in China," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 89-97.
    10. Douglas Almond & Hongbin Li & Shuang Zhang, 2019. "Land Reform and Sex Selection in China," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 127(2), pages 560-585.
    11. Daniel Béland & Philip Rocco & Shih-Jiunn Shi & Alex Waddan, 2018. "Paths to (de)centralization: Changing territorial dynamics of social policy in the People’s Republic of China and the United States," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 36(5), pages 897-915, August.
    12. Xu, Huayu, 2021. "The long-term health and economic consequences of improved property rights," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 201(C).
    13. Shengmin Sun & Qiang Chen, 2014. "Measuring the Effects of Decollectivization on China's Agricultural Growth: A Panel GMM Approach, 1970-1987," SDU Working Papers 2014-05, School of Economics, Shandong University.

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