An institutional analysis of China's state power structure and its operation

Journal of Contemporary China

Volumn 15, Issue 46, 2006, Pages 43-68

  Yang, Guangbin ^a  

^a RENMIN UNIVERSITY OF CHINA   (China)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK; POWER RELATIONS; STATE ROLE;

ASIA; CHINA; EURASIA; FAR EAST;

EID: 31144452833     PISSN: 10670564     EISSN: 14699400     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/10670560500331690     Document Type: Article

References (43)

1. About 'SSP', see Guangbin Yang, 'Zhidu fanshi: Yizhong yanjiu zhongguo zhengzhi fazhan de lujing' ['Institutional paradigm: An approach to study China's political development'], Journal of Renmin University of China 3, (2003);
2. Guangbin Yang, 'Yi zhidu wei zhongxin de lishi fazhanguan' ['Institution-centered approach to study historical development'], Daguo [Journal of National Interests ] no. 2, (2004).
3. Armen Alchian, 'Some economics of property rights', in A. Alchian, Economics Forces at Work (Liberty Press, 1977), pp. 127-149 (essay first published in 1965).
4. In the Nanning Conference held in January 1958, Mao Zedong complained that in the previous few years the finance ministry had submitted to the political bureau a pile of quite professional, quite completed report forms. This caused him to have to sign his name without reviewing the information. From Bo Yibo, Ruogan Zhongda Juece he Shijian de Lishi Huigu [Retrospect on Several Significant Decisions and Events], Vol. 2 (Beijing: Zhongyang Dangxiao Chubanshe, 1998), p. 650.
5. In the Nanning meeting (January 1958) that launched the Great Leap Forward, Mao Zedong critically blamed the State Council and its ministries' determination for not letting the Central Committee become involved in the design of economic construction. In 1959, in the Seventh Session of the Eighth National Congress of the CCP, Mao Zedong wrote in his speech outline: 'the power should be convened to the Standing Commissioners and the Secretariat. I am the director and Deng is the vice director'. It could be believed that Mao Zedong emphasized individual prestige and the Party's centralized power all the more.
6. Song Pang and Gang Han, 'Dang he guojia lingdao zhidu de lishi pingjia yu qianjing' ['The historical review and prospect on the Party and State leadership system'], Chinese Social Science 6, (1987).
7. If township A promised to yield 1,000 kg per mu, then township B would report 5,000 kg, and C said 10,000 kg.
8. Robert Dahl, Modern Political Analysis (New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1991), see ch. 5: The Similarity of Political Systems.
9. For the above statistics and features on the low efficiency of agriculture, see Qiren Zhou's paper, 'Zhongguo nongcun gaige: Guojia he suoyouquan guanxi' ['China's agriculture reform: The change of the relations between the State and the ownership right'], Zhongguo Shehui Kexue Jikan [Chinese Social Science Quarterly] (Hong Kong), (Summer 1997).
10. For 100 years, until the middle of the twentieth century, China experienced an overall social crisis. In fact, the first part of the twentieth century was a most turbulent period with frequent changes in rulers. The common people's comments and feelings on political subjects did not rise from what they said, but from what they would do.
11. Guojia Tongjiju, 1986 Nian Zhongguo Tongji Nianjian [China's Statistics Yearbook (1986)], pp. 227-231, 283, and 300-302.
12. Guojia Tongjiju, 1980 Nian Zhongguo Tongji Nianjian [China's Statistics Yearbook (1980)], pp. 40, 41, and 49.
13. A 'Five-Year Plan' is a typical way under the planned economy to carry out middle-term economic planning.
14. Guojia Tongjiju, 1986 Nian Zhongguo Nongye Nianjian [China's Agriculture Yearbook (1986)], p. 41;
15. 1981 Nian Zhguo Tongji Nianjian [China's Statistics Yearbook (1981)], pp. 411-412, 435-436.
16. The following are descriptions by some farmers of the public-owned property right: 'If the labor mark system can not be got rid of, the members of the communes can not tolerate anymore, had no incentive to work hard and had to suffer the starvation.' 'Working one year in the production brigades only brought the starvation. If this system continued for another two years, we had to go out to beg.' 'You are having a rest while I am not working. There will be no harvest. Thus all of us will have no food to eat.' See Runsheng Du, ed., Zhongguo Nongcun Zhidu Bianqian [Institutional Change in China's Rural Area ] (Chengdu: Sichuan Renmin Chubanshe, 1999), p. 126.
17. Guojia Tongjiju, 1983 Nian Zhongguo Tongji Nianjian [China's Statistics Yearbook (1983)], pp. 422, and 438
18. A. Alchian and H. Demsetz, 'Production, information costs and economic organization', American Economic Review 62, (1972), pp. 777-779.
19. Steven Cheung, Jingji Jieshi [Economic Explanation] (Beijing: Shangwu Press, 2001), pp. 381-384.
20. Ibid., pp. 427-428.
21. Douglass North, Structure and Change in Economic History (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1981), see ch. 3: Neo-classical Theory of the State.
22. In China, large-scale enterprise means one that is directly controlled by the Central Government.
23. Guojia Tongjiju, 2001 Nian Zhongguo Tongji Nianjian [China's Statistics Yearbook (2001)] (Beijing: Zhongguo Tongji Chubanshe, 2001), p. 247.
24. According to the Guanyu Zhichi Guoyouqiye Sahngshi de Tongzhi [Notes on Supporting Specially IPO of State-owned Enterprises] issued by China's Security Inspection Commission in 1998, in order to support reform and development of SOEs, 512 SOEs owned by local government and 512 SOEs owned by ministries shall be given special priority to go IPO.
25. See Hong Sheng, ed., Zhongguo Qiye Binggou Jingdian Anli [Classical Cases of Enterprise Merger in China] (Beijing: Zhongguo Qinggongye Chubanshe, 1999), p. 38.
26. See also Samuel Huntington, Political Order in Changing Societies (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968).
27. See Jianzhong Dai, 'Dangqian siying qiyezhu yanjiu' ['Studies of present private enterprisers'], Shehui Kexue Zazhi [Journal of Social Science] no. 5, (2001), p. 75.
28. See http://www. chinanews.com.cn, (19 May 2002).
29. Collection of Deng Xiaoping's Works (Beijing: Renmin Chubanshe, 1993), vol. 3, pp. 176-177.
30. See Yukai Wang, ed., Zhongguo Xingzheng Gaige 20 Nian [China's Administrative Reform in the Past 20 Years] (Zhengzhou: Zhongzhou Guji Chubanshe, 1998), p. 92.
31. Under the 19th Article of the Company Law, the preconditions to establish a company include legal sharer, legal capital, corporation chart, name of company, location of business and necessary conditions to run the company.
32. Concerning the detailed procedures on establishing a company, see Guangbin Yang, Zhongguo Jingji Zhuanxing zhong de Guojia Qaunli [The State Power in Chinese Economic Transition] (Beijing: Dangdai Shijie Chubanshe, 2003), pp. 147-165.
33. Detailed studies on departmental conflicts in China, see Kenneth Lieberthal and Michel Oksenberg, Policy Making in China: Leaders, Structures, and Processes (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988)
34. On the relationship between departmentalism-centered regulation and administrative monopoly, we can say that administrative monopoly causes departmentalism-centered regulation, and departmentalism-centered regulation consolidates and protects administrative monopoly.
35. See Liangfu Chen, Woguo Jingji Zhuangui Shiqi de Zhengfu Guizhi [The Governmental Regulation in Chinese Economic Transition] (Beijing: Zhongguo Caijing Chubanshe, 2000), pp. 56-61.
36. See Lihe Hu, '1988 nian woguo zujin jiazhi gusuan' ['Estimation of rent-seeking in China in 1988'], Shehui Jingji Tizhi Bijiao [Comparative Social and Economic System] no. 5, (1989);
37. Peian Wan, 'Zujin guimo de dongtai kaocha' ['Dynamic review of amount of rent'], Studies of Economics no. 2, (1995).
38. See Angang Hu, Xingzheng Longduan yu Guojia Anquan [Administrative Monopoly and State Security], (25 June 2002), available at www. chinanet.com.cn.
39. See Cheung, Jingji Jieshi, p. 453.
40. Paul Samuelson, 'Guojia jingzhengli de shichang jichu' ['Market foundation of a nation's competitiveness'], 12 Shiji Jingji Baodao, (28 April 2002).
41. See North, Structure and Change in Economic History;
42. Douglass North and Robert P. Thomas, The Rise of the Western World: A New Economic History (Cambridge: The University Press, 1973).
43. During the Song Dynasty (BC 960-1279), China owned the 'Great Four Inventions' including the compass, printing, paper making and gunpowder.