Abstract
As China celebrates its 40th anniversary, in 2018, of the reform and opening-up, it is an opportune moment to examine China’s development characteristics from the perspective of local governance. From 1978 to 2018, the main focal point of China’s reform and opening-up has been the decentralization from the government to the market and the society, as well as the decentralization from the central government to local governments. China’s local governments, which directly undertake local economic development, the provision of public services, and social functions, carry out the policies of the central government and perform de facto governmental functions, as well as offer key insights into to Chinese governmental operation. In China, a local governance system—which gives priority to local governments and includes both market participation and social coordination—is taking shape and playing an increasingly important role in national governance. It’s worth pointing out that China’s reform and opening-up develops along with the global local governance reform, responding to negative effects of globalization in local economic and social development. It plays a key role in a global multilevel governance since it directly deals with a multitude of public issues and services. This shows that local governance in contemporary China, which develops along with globalization, constitutes a key component of the global local governance reform and reflects the application results of governance theories in China.
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- 1.
Mao Zedong, On Ten Relationships, 1956.
- 2.
Local government, in strict terms, includes all government entities except the central government, but herein refers to those below provincial level, given the close relationship between provincial governments and the central government.
- 3.
Source: The Brochure of Administrative Divisions in P.R. China (2017), excluding regions, leagues, district offices, and neighborhoods mainly governed by resident agencies of local governments.
- 4.
The category also includes municipalities directly under the central government. These cities, including Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing, have the same administrative rank as provinces but greater power in political operation. In addition, they have special urban management privileges and institutional advantages. Municipalities are covered briefly as only governments below province levels are discussed in this book.
- 5.
Refer to resident agencies of the people’s governments at provincial and prefecture levels. Since the adoption of the “City Governing County” system in the 1990s, they have been knocked out and now only exist in a small number in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia.
- 6.
According to Charity Law of the People’s Republic of China effective in 2016, private nonenterprises are renamed social service organizations.
- 7.
China Statistical Yearbook 2016.
- 8.
2017 Q2 Report of Ministry of Civil Affairs.
- 9.
Source: www.saic.gov.cn, Analysis of National Enterprise Development Since the 18th Communist Party of China National Congress.
- 10.
Source: The State Council–Policies and Documents to Promote Private Investment.
- 11.
There is also horizontal intergovernmental interaction, which is not covered here.
- 12.
Source of data: http://jrs.mof.gov.cn/ppp/, Quarterly Report on the Fifth Phase of Project Library of National PPP Information Platform.
- 13.
By the end of 2016, China had registered 89,447,000 party members, with only a small fraction in the Party and government offices, and the vast majority in the society.
- 14.
Jing Yuejin: “The Party’s Important Role in Primary-Level Governance,” a speech given at Zhejiang University in July 2017.
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Yu, J. (2019). Introduction: Local Governance in China—Past, Present, and Future. In: Yu, J., Guo, S. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Local Governance in Contemporary China. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2799-5_1
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