Politics and Development of Contemporary China: Understanding Local Agency in China's Policy Reform

Xiaoye She

ISBN 10: 3030762114 / ISBN 13: 9783030762117

Published by Palgrave Macmillan, 2021

About this Item

Abnutzung / Risse - leicht. This book challenges the common perception or assumption that greater state intervention and re-centralization will result in convergence towards a more equitable and inclusive growth model in China. Instead of asking whether local agency matters, this project examines the conditions and latitude of local agency under initial decentralization followed by increasing top-down re-centralization. The central argument is that in response to common policy directives and pressures from above, disparities in local growth strategies have interacted with political institutions in generating "embedded" sub-national welfare mix models, with varying articulations of state, market, community, and family in Chinese welfare production. The bottom-up feedback effects from these embedded models have somewhat offset growing top-down pressure for re-centralization, contributing to persistent sub-national variations. This author contributes to a growing literature of comparative political economy that seeks to examine the political and economic logics of social policy in non-western and authoritarian political systems.

Seller Inventory # d833271d-abbf-4656-a6c2-7b1bf5258a22

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Politics and Development of Contemporary China: Understanding Local Agency in China's Policy Reform
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Publication Date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3030762114
• ISBN 13: 9783030762117
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Fine
• Seller catalogs:
  • Political Science & Politics

About this title

Synopsis

This book challenges the common perception or assumption that greater state intervention and re-centralization will result in convergence towards a more equitable and inclusive growth model in China. Instead of asking whether local agency matters, this project examines the conditions and latitude of local agency under initial decentralization followed by increasing top-down re-centralization. The central argument is that in response to common policy directives and pressures from above, disparities in local growth strategies have interacted with political institutions in generating “embedded” sub-national welfare mix models, with varying articulations of state, market, community, and family in Chinese welfare production. The bottom-up feedback effects from these embedded models have somewhat offset growing top-down pressure for re-centralization, contributing to persistent sub-national variations. This author contributes to a growing literature of comparative political economythat seeks to examine the political and economic logics of social policy in non-western and authoritarian political systems. 

About the Author

Xiaoye She is Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science at California State University San Marcos, USA.