Chinas Political Institutions

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Chinas Political Institutions

• A Unitary system
• State dominance over society
• Dominance of party over government

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Unitary System versus federal system

• Unitary System source of power lies with the
  central government no constitutional protection
  of the distribution of power and the change of
  power distribution unilaterally decided by the
  central government.
• Federal system U.S., Australia and Canada.
• Unitary system and implications for the nature of
  autonomy at the local levels

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Levels of governments in China (I)

• Central level
• provincial level 4 cities directly under the
  central government, provinces and autonomous
  regions
• county level more than 2,000 counties and
  county-level cities
• township level more than 50,000 townships/towns

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Levels of governments in China (II)

• Central economic cities (jihua danlie chengshi)
• Prefecture-level
• Special economic zones Shenzhen, Zhuhai,
  Shantou, Xiamen, and Hainan

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State Dominance Over Society

• Public ownership and central economic planning
• size of government in a comparative perspective
• economic reform and role of local government the
  growth of collective township and village
  enterprises
• regional variations across the country

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Dominance of Party over Government

• Parallel bureaucracy
• party core groups
• party control over cadre appointment and
  dismissal
• giving preference to party members in government
  bureaucracy

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The Communist Party of China (I)

• Total number 60 million
• established in 1921 on 1 July.
• Highest policy making body National party
  congress convened every 5 years
• Central Committee, Politburo and its standing
  committee, the central secretariat
• Central Disciplinary Committee
• major departments organization, propaganda,
  united front etc.

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The Communist Party of China (II)

• Structure of party organs at the provincial and
  county levels
• party branches and party committees
• real decision making powers in the Communist
  Party of China

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Government Organs

• National Peoples Congress and its standing
  committee
• State Council
• Ministries, commissions, offices under the State
  Council
• Supreme Courts and Supreme Peoples procuratorate

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Bureaucratic Ranks

• Province/ministry/central commission
• prefecture/department (ting)/bureau (ju)
• county/division (chu)
• township/section (ke)

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Positions and Grades

• Positions Premier, Ministers, Provincial
  governors, county magistrate etc.
• Grades civil service grades, 15 in total, and
  relate to positions in certain ways.

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Pay Level and Problems

• The overall pay level in comparison with other
  types of employees in China
• the increasing importance of informal elements in
  total income
• white income, grey income, and black income

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Pay System and structure

• Basic components
• position wage
• grade wage
• basic wage
• seniority wage
• pay level
• pay review and adjustment system
• variations across regions and departments

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Characteristics of the Chinese bureaucracy

• Personalized rule at the top, with some leaders
  have responsibilities for specific areas
• fragmented structure of authority
• authority below the very peak of the polity is
  fragmented, and this fragmentation is
  structurally based and has been enhanced by
  reform policies
• different territorial units at different levels
  different vertical systems and departments
• bureaucratic ranks and rank consciousness
• ubiquitous bureaucratic bargaining

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Bargaining

• Discussion and exchange of benefits between two
  and more bureaucratic units to gain co-operation
  from other parties
• bargaining has become more important in China in
  the reform era because partial interests are more
  legitimate and top political leaders cannot order
  the bureaucratic units to co-operate willingly

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The Matrix problem tiao/kuan issue

• The matrix problem for all large-scale
  organizations
• Why is this problem especially important in
  China?
• Unitary system
• central economic planning
• Tiao vertical bureaucracies on the basis of
  specialized functions (the concept of system or
  xitong)
• Kuai horizontal coordinating bodies organized on
  the basis of territorial units

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Tiao-kuai issue

• Tiao/kuai guanxi refers to the relationship
  between the vertical authority and horizontal
  authority and the tension and conflict arising
  from such relationship
• leadership relationship (lingdao guanxi) and
  professional relationship (yewu guanxi) the
  assignment of primary leadership in China

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Tiao-kuai issue

• Tiao-kuai guanxi and fragmented authority the
  problem of having many bosses
• vetoing power of any one of these bosses
• the tendency for the conflicts among bureaucratic
  units to be pushed up and overload of the central
  level
• tiao-kuai guanxi and bargaining

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Techniques for overcoming fragmentation of
authority

• Ideology and its declining importance in the
  reform era
• coordinating organs
• meeting and documentary systems
• policy communities
• personal ties and networks
• bargaining among different bureaucratic actors to
  construct a consensus