C HAPTER 2—S TRATEGIC I NITIATIVES AND THE A DMINISTRATIVE S YSTEM
T HEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS
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Figure 1: The guided evolution model
Source: Lovas et al. 2000: 876
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HEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONSThe Chinese leadership has a clear intention which it has repeatedly reiterated: transformation of development. By doing so, it formulates an ideological framework that contains the param-eters of change and transformation (unit of selection or strategic initiative). Guidelines are adopted that should be adopted at lower levels. The sources of variations in the Chinese polit-ical system are cadres; they are supposed to implement policies according to the guidelines set at central level. Some of these cadre become agents of selection and retention as they come up with new ideas (i.e. policy projects) that they feed into the input-output circle and which con-sequently become part of the strategic intent. If successful, these ideas are promoted and even emulated by other cadres in other jurisdictions. All of them are embedded in a system of for-mal structures and organizational routines (i.e. CMS) that gives incentives, sets constraints and thus exerts a certain degree of control over their actions.
The focus of my research lies on the changes which the unit of selection brings on the admin-istrative system or the changes that have resulted in the CMS after the adoption of the Scien-tific Development View.
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I treat evaluation and education as complementary elements of the CMS that equally reflect the ideas of development and transformation. They respond to external and internal challenges in China and translate them into their systems. The CMS—besides instilling loyalty among cadres—serves the function to transport ideas of development and thus organizes ideology. By doing so, the leadership hopes to push China down the path of transformation. The interpreta-tion and implementainterpreta-tion rest on the local governments that tailor evaluainterpreta-tion targets and cadre education according to the strategic initiative decided on central level, at the same time they make them compatible with local circumstances and needs.
Faced with the problem of policy implementation at local level, and rampant corruption with-in the Chwith-inese bureaucracy, the quest for standardization and objectivity to make cadres more accountable for their actions is important. In contrast to most of the studies on cadre account-ability, I hold that the incentive and constraint system tackles the principle-agent and the so called dictator’s commitment problem.13
Finally, the channels that transport ideas and concepts are not entirely institutional (or admin-istrative); personnel relations, technologies, and external institutions—such as media and aca-demia—serve as developer and promoter of the ideas of development.
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ETHODOLOGYO
PERATIONALIZATIONMy thesis draws on an extensive research of textual sources of CCP and Chinese government releases, publications and reports in the Chinese press. Between July 18 and August 2, 2013 I went on a field work trip to Jiangsu Province (I was based in Suzhou) and Beijing where I conducted semi-structured one-hour (and more) open-end interviews with Chinese scholars of different academic disciplines, one leading cadre of a private Chinese enterprise 民营, and representatives of NGOs. I also participated in a cadre training session on Questions and
study on Ecological Civilization and circular economy 生态文明与循环经济研究问题 at
China Renmin University, Beijing. Participants were cadres of different age and rank of the Chuxiong 楚 雄 州 Development and Reform Commission 发 展 改 革 委 员 会 that had commuted to the capital for a one-week long training program at China Renmin University. At13 The dictator’s commitment problem theorizes on power-sharing in dictatorial regimes. Boix et al (2013) state:
“Power-sharing in dictatorships is complicated by a fundamental commitment problem: no independent authority can guarantee that the spoils of joint rule will be divided as the dictator and his and her allies agreed.” (300).
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this occasion I collected statements and reactions of the participants on the lecture and the training program.
Picture 1: Cadre training session
Source: Photo shot by the author during the session
In the first part of my thesis I revisit the development of the CMS in general and its components, cadre evaluation and education. I hereby draw on international and Chinese academic publications, and refer to the most recent reform plans proposed by the CCP.
I decipher the ideology of Scientific Development View, crystallize its most important contents, and highlight the background—that is the socio-economic and environmental realities—against which the theory was formulated and the practical solutions promoted in Chinese politics. I hereby borrow from the methodology of discourse analysis. In my interviews with scholars coming from various disciplines I repeatedly raised the question why China needs the Scientific Development View. By doing so, I tried to query the background against which the theory was adopted. The different approaches brought very diverse explanations and thus amplified the picture of Scientific Development and its significance for China’s development.
In the next chapter, I analyze how these challenges and the strategies to tackle them are translated into cadre evaluation and education. First, I introduce into the reform efforts of the cadre evaluation system at national level induced by the Central Organization Department 中 国共产党组织部 (COD) that commenced in 2004, a few months after the official adoption of Scientific Development. The complete proposal for a new evaluation system under the Scientific Development View scheme was unveiled in 2008. Soon after its publication, local party committees started to rearrange party and government cadre evaluation systems. Thanks
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to a contact at the CPS in Beijing, I was able to lay hand on the complete set of documents on the new cadre evaluation system of party and government cadres at bureau level in Guangdong province. I hence present the new evaluation system focusing on formal regulations rather on the analysis of outcomes. The evaluation system includes the appraisal methods and the criteria sets with their respective weight in terms of points.
In the section on cadre education, I present the results of an analysis of party schools curricula in Jiangsu Province. The time period of analysis is March 2011 to 2012. As objects of analy-sis I have chosen three party schools, Jiangsu Provincial Party School and Academy of Ad-ministration 中共江苏省委党校 江苏省行政学院, Suzhou City Party School and Academy of Administration 中共苏州市委党校 苏州市行政学院, and Nanjing City Party School and Academy of Administration 中共南京市委党校 南京市行政学院. The reasons for this choice were rather practical as all three schools provided free access to their curricula until recently. My intention was to reflect local differences in the design of training curricula. Each party school is at a different level in the administration and thus handles the task to respond to central government guidelines and local interests differently. Unfortunately, I did not have access to the curriculum of Kunshan Party School which would have represented the county-level city. I began with categorizing curricula according to their thematic subject. As a second step, I dwelled deeper into the issue how the concept of a Scientific Development is translated into the curricula of cadre schools and into the evaluation criteria of cadres. I decided for a content related categorization of cadre training sessions because I wanted to capture the broad picture of the issues discussed in these schools. The contents of curricula give us an insight which topics are discussed, and which technical solutions are proposed. In other words, they reflect the ongoing political discourse on transformation in China. Hence, party schools can be used as objects of analysis to examine the discourse, its narratives and the solutions dis-cussed within the CCP.
In addition to official releases and the information provided on the web pages of the party schools, I collected reports on training classes in Chinese newspapers. Unfortunately I was not able to establish contacts at the respective party schools and conduct interviews. The conclusions drawn from the analysis have thus to be seen as mere hypothesis that need to be verified in further study.