Performance-Based Authoritarianism Revisited
GDP Growth and the Political Fortunes of China’s Provincial Leaders
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6007777 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Yumin Sheng (0000-0002-9870-8896, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 48 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 982-1018 |
| Publication date | 2022-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Modern China (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0097-7004 • E-ISSN: 1552-6836 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/00977004221074297 |
| OpenAlex | W4214548001 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 29 |
An influential performance-based authoritarianism thesis attributes China’s reform-era economic success to merit-based political selection whereby the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has persistently rewarded with career advancement local leaders overseeing fast GDP growth. Yet voluminous empirical research on whether boosting local economic growth has bestowed career advantages on provincial leaders remains inconclusive due to the assumption of static preferences of the national leadership for unbridled GDP growth and inconsistency in data measurement in studies with disparate time coverage. Employing annual individual-level data consistently coded with a general measure of career mobility and a rigorous measure of relative economic performance, I reexamine how provincial GDP growth affected the career outcomes of the governors and provincial party secretaries under different CCP national chiefs spanning the entire reform era. My findings challenge the sweeping, one-sided conventional wisdom and call for greater attention to shifting political and economic contexts in theoretical and empirical research on contemporary China
Authoritarianism · China · Communism · Democracy · Economic reform · Economics · Empirical research · Political economy · Political science · Politics · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences · Law · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies
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The Fundamental Institutions of China's Reforms and Development
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Information for Autocrats
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Sprinting with Small Steps” Towards Promotion
A Dynamic China Model
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Authoritarian Co-optation, the Territorial Dimension
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American Behavioral Scientist
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Career Advancement as Party Patronage
Local Governments as Industrial Firms
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2024 (2) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |