Balancing Local Concerns and Global Views: Western Administrative Theory in China’s Reform Practices

Abstract

China’s five-yearly governmental restructuring has always taken place in lockstep with the CPC (Communist Party of China) national congress. Moreover, the theme of every administrative reform in the past three decades has complied with that of theoretical research by foreign scholars during the same period. The Chinese government draws lessons from theories of foreign public administration to explore ways to reform its practices. By means of evaluating the gains and losses of the Chinese government in the above-mentioned process, this chapter points out that theories of Western public administration meet local challenges while contributing to China’s reform practices. Through their analyses, the chapter uses China’s practices as examples to highlight the balance between local concerns and global views and to suggest how scholars can better advise governments in the process of administrative reforms in other developing countries.

The previous version of this chapter was published in Asian Politics & Policy with Puqu Wang in 2018. The author here thanks the original publication, John Wiley & Sons, and the coauthor for their permissions to reuse this chapter in this book.