Hobbling Big Brother
Top-Level Design and Local Discretion in China’s Social Credit System
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12518521 |
|---|---|
| Authors | W H Tsai (0000-0003-4803-6953), Wen‐hsuan Tsai (corresponding author), Hsin-Hsien Wang, Ruihua Lin (0009-0001-6441-3184) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 86 |
| Pages | 1-20 |
| Publication date | 2021-05-05 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The China Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1324-9347 • E-ISSN: 1835-8535 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/714492 |
| OpenAlex | W3159141499 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 12 |
| References cited | 18 |
This article argues that policy implementation in China has moved toward a system under which the center formulates a blueprint or “top-level design” from which local officials devise detailed regulations through a process of “crossing the river by feeling for stones.” This applies to the development of China’s new social credit system. To minimize political risk, when implementing it local officials have selected easier goals from the “top-level design” blueprint. In City Z, for example, we find that promoting integrity among businesses is less risky than promoting integrity among civil servants or the general public, so less progress has been made in the latter two areas when putting in place integrity credit-point systems. The risks involved in promoting social credit among the general populace are the greatest, so the city’s efforts in this have been limited. From our empirical study of China’s social credit system in City Z, we draw some conclusions about policy implementation under Xi Jinping
Administrative discretion · Blueprint · Business · China · Discretion · Economic growth · Economics · Political science · Politics · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Engineering · Income, Poverty, and Inequality · Law · Local Government Finance and Decentralization · Public Administration
Dead Ends and Policy Change in Chinese Experimental Governance
Accepting but not engaging with it
Civilized cities or social credit? Overlap and tension between emergent governance infrastructures in China
Governing Credit in the Digital Age
Protecting society from itself
Living in the era of codes
Who supports expanding surveillance? Exploring public opinion of Chinese social credit systems
Hometown favoritism and intra-regional trade barriers under decentralization
The Expanding Digital Reach of the Chinese State
China's social credit system and the family
Trusting by Numbers
Unlocking policy implementation logic
The Political Economy of Dictatorship
Constructing a Data‐Driven Society
Integrated Fragmentation and the Role of Leading Small Groups in Chinese Politics
Societies of Senior Citizens and Popular Protest in Rural Zhejiang
From Local Experiments to National Policy
Weiwen at the Grassroots
Decentralization and Veiled Corruption under China’s “Rule of Mandates”
Information, Bureaucracy, and Economic Reforms in China and the Soviet Union
China's Changing of the Guard
Prospect Theory, Rational Choice, and International Relations
Introduction
Studying the Chinese Policy Process in the Era of ‘Top-Level Design
Supervision by Public Opinion” or by Government Officials? Media Criticism and Central-Local Government Relations in China
Food Safety and Social Risk in Contemporary China
From Reform to Revolution
| Citations per year | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2022 - 2026 (5) |
| Highly cited | No |