The digitalization and evolution of China's vertical governance model

Xiang Gao

Chapter 12 in Handbook on Local Governance in China, 2023, pp 208-223 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: The role of the provincial government has been underscored in China’s digitalization. Digitalization strengthens the provincial government’s information ability for principal-agent control in the decentralized model and enables the provincial government to achieve effective disciplinary control. Additionally, the provincial government’s decision-making power is expanding, as a growing number of works in digitalization appeal directly to the provincial level. While the first two mechanisms consolidate the provincial government’s authority without requiring any significant structural adjustment, the third mechanism turns the provincial government from a top designer into an actor and brings about fundamental organizational change within sub-national governance. The evidence points to the conclusion that the de facto managerial level of local governance is moving up to the provincial level with regard to digitalization. This study advances the current discussion on China’s central-local relations by presenting a systematic, nuanced picture of how digitalization is restructuring China’s vertical governance model.

Keywords: Asian Studies; Law - Academic; Politics and Public Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781800883246.00021 (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:20565_12

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Darrel McCalla ().