Gunter Schubert

TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated how the central government's intention to build a new socialist countryside is being substantiated and implemented at the local level by conducting fieldwork in two Chinese counties in 2008 and 2009.

TL;DR: In this article, a thorough investigation of local implementation mechanisms, however, is often hindered by hindering the thorough evaluation of the local implementation mechanism, which is a core component of Chinese political system's adaptability and stability.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the overall quest for Taiwanese sovereignty against Beijing9s insistence on the "one country, two systems" formula suggests the rise of an overarching consensus between all political parties that reflects the fact that a Taiwanese nation already exists.

Abstract: Linking up with and critically assessing the recent literature on the local state in China, this article introduces a new framework to understand group behavior and strategic agency in local policy processes. Conceptualizing county and township cadres as a ‘strategic group’, the framework offers a number of analytical tools for better understanding the conditions of effective and ineffective policy implementation. Drawing on insights from development sociology, Bourdieu’s theory of capital formation and the garbage can model from organization theory, against a background of extensive fieldwork in numerous Chinese counties over the last years conducted by the authors, the article intends to theoretically substantiate the current knowledge of China scholars on the nexus between actors and their institutional environment in the Chinese local state.

TL;DR: For example, this paper found that informal cadre networks penetrate the institutional fabric of the county completely and build a "shadow state" which combines personalized rule and bureaucratism, is obsessed with quantitative output and engages in campaign-style electioneering.