Political Elite Coalition and Local Administrative Reform in China—a case study of Shunde under Wang Yang

Bibliographic Data

ID12422752
AuthorsNandiyang Zhang (0000-0002-6326-1457, Renmin University of China, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume25
Issue98
Pages277-291
Publication date2015-10-27
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Contemporary China (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1067-0564 • E-ISSN: 1469-9400
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10670564.2015.1075721
OpenAlexW2290864078
LanguageEN
Citations received9

This article examines the importance of political elite coalitions at local levels to create institutional reform in contemporary China. By exploring Shunde’s administrative reforms under Wang Yang, Guangdong’s provincial Party secretary from 2008 to 2012, this article identifies a provincial–grassroots coalition as the essential impetus to local reforms. It argues that formation of political elite coalitions, built upon mutual trust through reciprocal interactions, is crucial for the success of reform. Within the coalition, the strong reformist provincial leader provides his leadership by becoming intensively involved in the reform process, while active grassroots cadres serve as designers and executors of reform plans. By means of a comparison between the scenarios of active grassroots cadres without Wang and Wang with less enthusiastic grassroots cadres, the article concludes that this political elite coalition is by nature fragile; if either side is not present, the coalition will collapse, resulting in either the failure of reform or a deviation of existing reforms to a less fruitful pattern

China · Democracy · Electoral reform · Elite · Grassroots · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Reciprocal · Sociology · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Chinese history and philosophy · Law · Public Administration

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