De spite playing a key contributory role in China’s recent economic reforms an d the Party’s regime durability\, there has been a noted reduction in centr al-level policy experimentation under Xi Jinping’s administration. Recent s tudies have further noted an empirical reduction in policy innovation at th e subnational level\, and question whether local officials will continue to experiment in the foreseeable future.
This talk suggests that althou gh these changes at the central-level are filtering down to local officials \, a great deal of variation in policy experimentation exists. Thus\, the p uzzle motivating this talk is how do local officials filter these instituti onal changes to the extent of observed variations in local policy innovatio n?
Using recent fieldwork evidence\, this talk presents three potenti al explanations: (1) the ineffectiveness of the vertical reward and punishm ent systems operated by the Party-state\; (2) differing base preferences of local officials\; and\, (3) the presence of a cohort effect\, viz. a commu nities of practice. While some officials are still conducting policy experi mentation\, the overall reduction in innovation strongly suggests that pote ntial solutions to governance problems remain trapped at the local level\, and that the central government will lose this “adaptable” governance mecha nism that has contributed to its past economic and political successes.
Reza Hasmath (Ph.D.\, Cambridge) is a P rofessor in Political Science at the University of Alberta. Prior to this a ppointment he was a faculty member at the Universities of Oxford\, Melbourn e\, and Toronto. His award-winning research is currently supported by vario us multi-year grant schemes\, notably from the Social Science and Humanitie s Research Council of Canada\, and Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation. His recent journal articles appear in the Journal of Social Policy\, International Political Science Review\, Voluntas\, Development Policy Review\, Journal o f Civil Society\, The China Quarterly\, Current Sociology\, and the Journal of Contemporary China.