Decentralized Authoritarianism in China: The Communist Party's Control of Local Elites in the Post-Mao Era

by Pierre F. Landry

China, like many authoritarian regimes, struggles with the tension between the need to foster economic development by empowering local officials and the regime’s imperative to control them politically. Landry explores how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) manages local officials in order to meet these goals and perpetuate an unusually decentralized authoritarian regime. Using unique data collected at the municipal, county, and village level, Landry examines in detail how the promotion mechanisms for local cadres have allowed the CCP to reward officials for the development of their localities without weakening political control. His research shows that the CCP’s personnel management system is a key factor in explaining China’s enduring authoritarianism and proves convincingly that decentralization and authoritarianism can work hand in hand.

Genres: China

316 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2008

About the author

Director Global China Studies, Professor of Politics, Global Network Professor, NYU Shanghai, NYU

I am a Professor of Political Science and director of Global China Studies at NYU-Shanghai, as well as a Research Fellow with the Research Center for the Study of Contemporary China at Peking University. I am also affiliated with theDepartment of Politics at NYU in New York City. My undergraduate training was in economics and law at Sciences-Po in Paris. I received his Ph.D in Political Science at the University of Michigan. I am also an alumnus of the University of Virginia (MA in Foreign Affairs) and the Johns Hopkins-Nanjing University program at the Center for Chinese and American Studies in Nanjing.

My research interests focus on Asian and Chinese politics, comparative local government, quantitative comparative analysis and survey research. I have written on governance and the political management of officials in China. Besides articles and book chapters in comparative politics and political methodology, I am the author of “Decentralized Authoritarianism in China” with Cambridge University Press (2008). I am also co-investigator of the Barometer on China’s Development (BOCD) at the Universities Service Centre for China Studies (Chinese University of Hong Kong) and also serve on the international advisory committee of the Centre. I also collaborate with the Project on Governance and Local Development (Yale University and the University of Gotherburg) as well as the United Nations Development Program –UNDP and the World Bank on developing indicators of the variability of local governance in a variety of countries, particularly in China, Vietnam, Tunisia, Jordan and Malawi, inter alia.

Reviews

[Rodolfo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a somewhat interesting book which has an insightful thesis on how the Chinese Communist Party is able to replicate its rule while it is pursuing decentralization. The data collection is valuable but it does make a lot of the book skimmable- it does look like a few academic papers put together which makes it also a bit repetitive.

But I would still recommend at least going over the introduction and conclusions.