East Asia Workshop: Politics, Economy and Society Presents
Special Session on China’s Political Economy:
Between the Center and the Local Authorities
Presenters:
Chengli Liu, Central Compilation and Translation Bureau
Guoqiang Lou, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics
4:00-5:30pm, Tuesday
February 12, 2013
Pick Lounge, 5828 South University Ave.
Abstract
This special session presents two papers on China’s political economy.
The first paper by Chengli Liu examines the intergovernmental relations with Tiao-Kuai characteristics in contemporary China. Government functions are generally carried out via different departments at hierarchical governments in contemporary China. Due to the unitary system, nearly all departments at higher governments have their counterparts at lower levels except a couple of departments such as foreign affairs, defense. Tiao is thereby formulated to describe the department with the same function in vertical profile, while Kuai is used to refer to individual government in horizontal dimension. This article demonstrates that vertical and horizontal intergovernmental competition on administrative power has been inspiring the structure of Tiao-Kuai segmentation. It is still unclear whether or not the ongoing reforms of mega-ministries and direct provincial administration of counties can foster the integration from the status quo of segmentation for the Tiao-Kuai relations.
The second paper by Guoqiang Lou probes the evolution of incentive models of local government in China. The incentive resources of local governments in China are from both fiscal sharing and promotion. But the two incentive methods have different impacts on the behaviors of local governments. Fiscal incentive makes local officials’ eyes down to their jurisdiction, looking for projects of maximizing fiscal return. While the promotion incentive makes local officials’ eyes up to their superiors, looking for projecting of maximizing political performance. The TSS reform changes the relationship between central governments and local governments, the incentive degree of fiscal sharing decreases, while that of promotion increases.
Workshop website: http://cas.uchicago.edu/workshops/eastasia/
Student coordinator: Le Lin (lelin2010@uchicago.edu)
Faculty sponsors: Dali Yang, Dingxin Zhao and Zheng Michael Song
This presentation is sponsored by the Council on Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences and Center for East Asian Studies. Persons with disabilities who believe they may need assistance please contact the student coordinator in advance.