Hon S. Chan

Cadre Personnel Management in China: The Nomenklatura System, 1990–1998

Nomenklatura , which establishes Party and governmental leadership in China, is a key instrument of Communist Party control. Changes in the nomenklatura reveal shifts and strains in Chinese governmental and personnel management. This research report analyses the latest nomenklatura configuration, established in 1998, and compares it to the 1990 one. It reveals that the major thrust in 1998 was to reform state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and argues that the Party faces a difficult trade-off between maintaining political primacy and achieving economic flexibility. It shows that the changes in the 1998 nomenklatura clearly encapsulate the contradictory desires of the party-state – economic modernization through marketization combined with continued political control. Central control for some strategic SOEs now exists alongside much looser control of smaller enterprises.

Public Management Policy and Practice in Western China: Metapolicy, Tacit Knowledge, and Implications for Management Innovation Transfer

On the basis of our fieldwork conducted during the past two decades, in this article, we report our principal findings about the metapolicy and tacit knowledge of public management in western China. We focus on the deeper patterns of managerial and organizational behavior and argue that Chinese bureaucratic culture and practices (especially practices of the Communist Party of China) have transformed various Western approaches (New Public Management, performance audit, etc.). In the process, government officials are also being transformed. Genuine administrative reform, as has diffused globally, has not taken place in China. Implications for Chinese administrative studies and management innovation transfer are discussed.

The Civil Service under One Country, Two Systems: The Cases of Hong Kong and the People's Republic of China

Under the principle of “one country, two systems,” Hong Kongs and Chinas civil services are changing, but they clearly are not converging. The civil service reforms made in Hong Kong and China appear to be heading toward two logical extremes: one toward strengthening political authority over the civil service, and the other instituting greater institutionalization. What appears to be a problem in Hong Kong may be seen as a solution in China. Not only reform problems, but also reform options, are defined in relation to wider political institutions and changing socioeconomic dynamics. The study shows that while some things do need to be uniform, such as loyalty to the state and central government, a great deal of flexibility regarding administrative systems within one country is possible. There can be a modern nation without a truly national civil service.

Environmental attitudes and concerns of the environmental protection bureaucrats in guangzhou, people's republic of china: Implications for environmental policy implementation

This article analyzes the questions of implementation failure in environmental policy in China. Using empirical data collected in Guangzhou, Peoples Republic of China, die article documents the environmental attitude of Guangzhous Environmental Protection bureaucrats. In interpreting the data, the article seeks to assess and evaluate the present state of environmental administration in China. This article provides evidence that although China has made much progress in developing environmental legislation and a regulatory framework, the economic growth and devolution of power unleashed by reforms have also created new environmental stresses and, to some extent, reduced the regulatory capabilities of governments in China.

Four Challenges to Accountability in Contemporary Public Administration: Lessons From the United States and China

Using the Romzek-Dubnick typology of accountability, the authors analyze challenges that reinvention and new public management reforms in the United States and China present with regard to maintaining legal controls, protecting non-mission-based administrative objectives, pursuing public values, and sustaining hierarchical authority. The authors show that reforms—especially outsourcing and results orientation—have very different consequences in the dissimilar U.S. and Chinese legal and political settings. The analysis contributes to those public administrative theories holding that when it comes to reform, law and politics matter, and that even when administrative problems are similar across nations, their solutions may differ.

Designing China's Civil Service System: General Principles and Realities

In examining how Chinese policy makers and law drafters defined problems and formulated solutions, this article seeks to address two questions. First, the authors consider the extent to which Chinas civil service system has embraced principles and features of Western civil service systems. Second, the authors illustrate the political nature of the attempt to establish a civil service system, which severely limits a rational policy design in China. As a result of the political regression since June 1989, the present civil service system has experienced little change.

How are they paid? A study of civil service pay in China

The importance of pay in developing a professional, effective, and honest civil service is widely recognized. The World Bank and OECD have made uninterrupted efforts to encourage many developing countries to carry out pay reform. This study provides useful information for researchers and practitioners to compare civil service pay reform between China and other developing countries. It assesses the level of civil service pay by comparing it with pay in other sectors in China, using updated and credible data recently made available. It clarifies several points in the debate over civil service pay in China and provides new perspectives on the issue of whether the civil service pay in China is high or low. The analysis and findings in this study will be of interest to researchers and practitioners beyond China because the Chinese experience with civil service pay reform has important points in common with similar reforms elsewhere. For example, the Chinese phenomenon of large, non-wage, largely unreported and unofficial, civil service pay in China resembles practices in developing nations such as Vietnam, Egypt, Tanzania, Zambia, and Uganda. Nonetheless, to the extent that pay reform is driven by internal circumstances, strategies and objectives are likely to differ even though the basic problems of wage disparities, anti-corruption, and low civil service performance are similar. Given its economic importance and valuable reform experiences, China may provide a model for reforms elsewhere. This study also provides a benchmark for future research and cautions researchers to view official pay scales potentially as serious understatements of actual remuneration. Points for practitioners Many developing and transitional countries have attempted to reform their pay systems, with mixed results. This study provides useful information for researchers and practitioners to compare civil service pay reform between China and other countries. China’s experience in establishing a new civil service pay system provides two useful lessons for practitioners elsewhere. First, the elimination of non-wage income is vital to successful pay reform. Second, reining in non-wage income requires budgetary reform, whereby off-budgetary funds that finance non-wage benefits are incorporated into the formal budget and subjected to proper supervision. China can also learn from other developing and transitional countries’ experiences, particularly with regard to public sector downsizing.

The Institution of the State in China

AbstractThis paper analyzes the early experience of the institution of China’s civil service system. China’s peculiar political economy largely explained the changing reform initiatives over times. The problems confronting Chinese officials are markedly different from the West despite the fact that China and the West have engaged their efforts in undertaking administrative reforms in the last two decades or so. Western countries look for way to integrate administration with politics. Contrarily, China seeks to suppress politics so as to re-institute the functionaries of the state. Core features of the institution of China’s civil service system will be discussed. This paper concludes by arguing that China’s institution experience is at odds with the global trend. Local politics and domestic experience invariably make a great impact and inevitably chart the course of development. More often than not, identifying differences is more easy than looking for similarities.

The Making of Chinese Civil Service Law Ideals, Technicalities, and Realities

The goal of Chinese civil service reform is an appropriate balance in the relationship between politics and administration. This article examines the interaction between Chinese reformers and bureaucrats by raising two key questions: “What problems did Chinese reformers identify?” and “What measures did Chinese bureaucrats use to address these problems?” The article discusses three approaches that reformers took toward establishing a civil service system in China as they attempted to define, arrange, and interpret priorities to meet political and policy challenges. Core to the endeavor is the question of how far measures can be taken to reduce the power and authority of the Communist Party of China such that a state civil service can fully function. The article finds that, although some bureaucrats did want to adopt certain Western principles in civil service (as they understood or misunderstood them), for the most part they relied on an examination of the national political systems to define reform problems and formulate solutions. In the final analysis, because the reformers decided to write politics into the law, the bureaucrats needed to find ways through the legislation to formalize the leading role of the party, to make description fit with facts (i.e., comport with reality), and to unify personnel management power by merging a statutory civil service law with a nonstatutory personnel management system.

The Concept of ‘Merit’ in Australia, China and Taiwan

The article provides a description of Australian approaches to ‘merit’ and an overview of the other symposium articles on the application of merit in China and Taiwan. The term ‘merit’ is commonly used in Australia, China, and Taiwan as an important attribute of good government service, but it means different things in different countries, reflecting both different institutional arrangements and differences in culture. Australias current application of the merit principle is described in some detail. The principle and its application have been subject to debate throughout the last century and continue today. The debates reflect social attitudes at the time and developments in the role of government and the skills government requires, and changes in the Australian labour market. Key debates include the role of women, treatment of ex-servicemen, importance of graduate recruitment, equal employment opportunity, and staff perceptions of fairness and the application of merit in employment decisions. China has a long tradition of autocracy and a long history of competitive examinations for joining government service. It faces the challenge of whether it is possible to embrace a merit principle where politics and administration are not distinguished. Merit is also applied within a culture that gives considerable emphasis to personal relations (guanxi). Taiwan also draws on Chinas long experience with examinations. A key challenge now is whether it gives too much emphasis to equality and fair access to public sector employment opportunities and too little to the skills and experience different government agencies require. These different approaches and different challenges reflect differences in the three countries relating in particular to the role of government, the relationship between politics and administration and culture.