Good governance from below: local change agents and public policy innovation in China
Introduction
The stability of China´s authoritarian one-party state depends to a large degree on the cooperation of local officials in implementing, refining and even designing new policies. While existing research has recognized the importance of locally generated policy innovations for China's political stability and economic development, this is the first study to systematically analyze why and under what conditions local change agents decide to cooperate with the central government even if no material benefits can be obtained. To examine the impact of structural factors such as economic development, fiscal transfers and geographical location, a database covering more than 2.000 local experiments will be created to facilitate statistical and geographical analyses. The impact of informal institutions such as reform networks will be examined by a detailed study of radical innovations in three locations. Insight will be provided into local programs for participatory budgeting, the creation of a rural credit scheme, and the introduction of gender equality measures. Finally, the impact of personal characteristics of change agents will be analyzed by means of personal interviews in the three locations under study. In addition, psychometric tests will be applied to random sample of change agents. The project will provide insights into the dynamics of policy innovation in China and enhance our understanding of the puzzling resilience of autocracy in the world's most-populated country.
Department Researchers in this Project
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Koordinator/Projektledare
Christian
Göbel
(Senior Lecturer) |
