Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T08:43:49.815Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Strategic Modelling: “Building a New Socialist Countryside” in Three Chinese Counties*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

Anna L. Ahlers  and
Gunter Schubert
Anna L. Ahlers
Affiliation:
University of Bonn. Email: [email protected].
Gunter Schubert
Affiliation:
University of Tübingen. Email: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Models, pilots and experiments are considered distinctive features of the Chinese policy process. However, empirical studies on local modelling practices are rare. This article analyses the ways in which three rural counties in three different provinces engage in strategies of modelling and piloting to implement the central government's “Building a New Socialist Countryside” (shehuizhuyi xinnongcun jianshe) programme. It explains how county and township governments apply these strategies and to what effect. It also highlights the scope and limitations of local models and pilots as useful mechanisms for spurring national development. The authors plead for a fresh look at local modelling practices, arguing that these can tell us much about the realities of governance in rural China today.

Keywords

Building a New Socialist Countrysidemodel villagesmodelling strategieslocal policy implementationlocal governancelocal agencyrural China
Type
Articles
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 216 , December 2013 , pp. 831 - 849
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

We would like to thank Thomas Heberer, Linda Chelan Li, Li Lianjiang, Graeme Smith, Yang Xuedong and Zhou Xueguang for their comments on earlier drafts of this paper.

References

Ahlers, Anna L., and Schubert, Gunter. 2009. “‘Building a new socialist countryside’ – Only a political slogan?” Journal of Current Chinese Affairs 38(4), 35–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bennett, Gordon. 1976. Yundong: Mass Campaigns in Chinese Communist Leadership. Berkeley: Center for Chinese Studies.Google Scholar
Brown, Jeremy. 2006. “Staging Xiaojinzhuang: the city in the countryside, 1974–1976.” In Esherick, Joseph W., Pickowicz, Paul G. and Walder, Andrew G. (eds.), The Chinese Cultural Revolution as History. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 153–184.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cai, Yongshun. 2004. “Irresponsible state: local cadres and image-building in China.” Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Policies 20(4), 20–41.Google Scholar
Chen, Lijun. 2004. Building Local State Capacity in China. Ann Arbor: UMI ProQuest Information and Learning Company.Google Scholar
Donaldson, John A. 2009. “Why do similar areas adopt different developmental strategies? A study of two puzzling Chinese provinces.” Journal of Contemporary China 18(60), 421–444.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heilmann, Sebastian. 2008a. “From local experiments to national policy. The origins of China's distinctive policy process.” The China Journal 59, 1–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heilmann, Sebastian. 2008b. “Policy experimentation in China's economic rise.” Studies in Comparative International Development 43(1), 1–26.Google Scholar
Heilmann, Sebastian. 2009. “Maximum tinkering under uncertainty. Unorthodox lessons from China.” Modern China 35 (4), 450–462.Google Scholar
Heilmann, Sebastian. 2011. “Policy making through experimentation. The formation of a distinctive policy process.” In Heilmann, Sebastian and Perry, Elizabeth J. (eds.), Mao's Invisible Hand. The Political Foundations of Adaptive Governance in China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 62–101.Google Scholar
Hillman, Ben. 2010. “Factions and spoils: examining political behavior within the local state in China.” The China Journal 64, 1–18.Google Scholar
Ju, Zhenyuan, Li, Xiaoyun and Wang, Xiuqing (eds.). 2006. Zhongguo shehuizhuyi xin nongcun jianshe yanjiu (New Rural Construction in Socialist China). Beijing: Shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe.Google Scholar
Le Mons Walker, Kathy. 2006. “‘Gangster capitalism’ and peasant protest in China: the last 20 years.” The Journal of Peasant Studies 33(1), 1–33.Google Scholar
O'Brien, Kevin, and Li, Lianjiang. 1999a. “Campaign nostalgia in the Chinese countryside.” Asian Survey 39(3), 375–393.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Brien, Kevin, and Li, Lianjiang. 1999b. “Selective policy implementation in rural China.” Comparative Politics 31(2), 167–186.Google Scholar
Pan, Wei, and He, Xuefeng (eds.). 2006. Shehuizhuyi xinnongcun jianshe de lilun yu shijian (Theory and Practice of Building a New Socialist Countryside). Beijing: Zhongguo jingji chubanshe.Google Scholar
Perry, Elizabeth J. 2011. “From mass campaigns to managed campaigns: ‘constructing a new socialist countryside’.” In Heilmann, Sebastian and Perry, Elizabeth J. (eds.), Mao's Invisible Hand. The Political Foundations of Adaptive Governance in China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 30–61.Google Scholar
Qi, Xiangdong, Cui, Junmin and Zhao, Cuihong (eds.). 2008. Xinnongcun jianshe de lilun yu shijian (Theory and Practice of Building a New Countryside). Beijing: Jingji kexue chubanshe.Google Scholar
Qingyuan County Government. 2008. “Guanyu zuohao 2008 niandu cunzhuang zhengzhi gongzuo de tongzhi” (Notification on how to do village renovation work for the year 2008). Document No. 8.Google Scholar
Ross, Lester. 1987. “Obligatory tree planting: the role of campaigns in policy implementation in post-Mao China.” In Lampton, David M. (ed.), Policy Implementation in Post-Mao China. Berkeley: University of California Press, 225–252.Google Scholar
Schubert, Gunter, and Ahlers, Anna L.. 2012. “County and township cadres as a strategic group: ‘Building a new socialist countryside’ in three provinces.” The China Journal 67, 67–86.Google Scholar
Smith, Graeme. 2009. “Political machinations in a rural county.” The China Journal 62, 29–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Graeme. 2010. “The hollow state: rural governance in China.” The China Quarterly 203, 601–618.Google Scholar
State Council. 2006. “Quanmian zhengque lijie shehuizhuyi xinnongcun jianshe” (Fully and correctly understand the building of a new socialist countryside”), 15 March, http://www.gov.cn/node_11140/2006-03/15/content_227640.htm. Accessed 10 August 2011.Google Scholar
Thøgersen, Stig. 2011. “Building a new socialist countryside: model villages in Hubei.” In Alpermann, Björn (ed.), Politics and Markets in Rural China. London and New York: Routledge, 172–186.Google Scholar
Wang, Shaoguang. 2009. “Adapting by learning. The evolution of China's rural health care financing.” Modern China 35(4), 370–404.Google Scholar
Whiting, Susan H. 2004. “The cadre evaluation system at the grassroots: the paradox of party rule.” In Naughton, Barry and Yang, Dali L. (eds.), Holding China Together. New York: Cambridge University Press, 101–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yulin City Government. 2006. “Guanyu kaizhan shehuizhuyi xinnongcun jianshe ‘bai cun shifan xingdong’ de shishi fang'an” (Propositions concerning the launch of the XNCJS “100 model villages” scheme). Document No. 44.Google Scholar
Zhao, Shukai. 2006a. “Obligatory interactions in the affairs of township governments.” Chinese Sociology and Anthropology 39(2), 17–25.Google Scholar
Zhao, Shukai. 2006b. “The accountability system of township governments.” Chinese Sociology and Anthropology 39(2), 64–73.Google Scholar
Zhou, Xueguang. 2010. “The institutional logic of collusion among local governments in China.” Modern China 36(1), 47–78.Google Scholar