The Politics of Expertise in China

265 Pages·2018·4.112 MB·English

by  Xufeng Zhu

The Politics of Expertise in China
Since the reform and opening-up policy was implemented in China, consulta-
tions have been increasingly carried out during the policy-making process. This
often involves experts, many of whom are based in think-t anks or similar institu-
tions. The degree of access to the policy-m aking process varies, and con-
sequently some experts influence the policy- making process significantly and
others not. This book explores how experts in China engage with the policy-
making process and the circumstances, which affect how far they are able to
influence policy-m aking.
Xufeng Zhu is Professor and Associate Dean at the School of Public Policy and
Management, Tsinghua University, China. He serves as Director of the Think
Tank Research Center of the school. He is the author of The Rise of Think Tanks
in China (2013). His recent publications include articles in Journal of Public
Administration Research and Theory, Public Administration, Governance,
Policy Studies Journal, Policy Sciences, Public Management Review, The China
Quarterly, Pacific Affairs and many others.
China Policy Series
Series Editor:
Zheng Yongnian
East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore
49 China–Africa Relations
Building Images through Cultural Co-o peration, Media Representation and
on the Ground Activities
Edited by Kathryn Batchelor and Xiaoling Zhang
50 China’s Authoritarian Path to Development
Is Democratisation Possible?
Tang Liang
51 Foreign Policies toward Taiwan
Shaohua Hu
52 Governing Environmental Conflicts in China
Yanwei Li
53 Post- Western Sociology
From China to Europe
Edited by Laurence Roulleau-B erger and Li Peilin
54 China’s Pension Reforms
Political Institutions, Skill Formation and Pension Policy in China
Ke Meng
55 China’s New Silk Road
An Emerging World Order
Edited by Carmen Amado Mendes
56 The Politics of Expertise in China
Xufeng Zhu
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The Politics of Expertise
in China
Xufeng Zhu
First published 2019
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© 2019 Xufeng Zhu
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ISBN: 978-1-138-65186-9 (hbk)
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Contents
Preface vi
List of abbreviations x
1 Introduction 1
2 Outside- in enlightenment 42
3 Linear consultation 85
4 Locked- out 123
5 Civic activism 178
6 Conclusion 221
References 233
Index 244
Preface
The relationship between knowledge and power has always been a core topic in
the intellectual history of human beings. In the science of public policy, this
topic is thereupon extended as the role played by experts’ knowledge in the
process of policy change. In the 1960s, when the development of public policy
was still in its early stage, scholars were already conducting in-d epth studies on
expert involvement in the political system. In the following decades, the theory
of expert involvement has become an increasingly important branch in the dis-
cipline of public policy. Experts, however, are generally considered to be the
cause of policy change: scholars place more emphasis on whether and to what
extent policy changes have been influenced by experts. On the contrary, we want
to answer a counter- intuitive theoretical question in this book: Do policy
changes, in turn, influence expert involvement? In answering this theoretical
question, we actually acknowledge the endogenous logic between policy change
and expert involvement, that is, that policy change and expert involvement
interact as both cause and effect.
Experts are those special policy actors who influence the decision- making
process through their knowledge and expertise. Owing to the special administra-
tive status taken on by experts during the policy change process, their behavi-
oural patterns and strategic selection are quite different from those of other
policy actors, such as government officials, entrepreneurs, non-g overnmental
organisations, citizen and other policy actors. Since the Communist Party of
China and the central government first proposed the scientific and democratic
decision- making process, experts have become an integral part of China’s public
life. They are also active in every corner of the public domain. On the one hand,
they often participate in the policy consultation under the government’s invita-
tion, undertake research as requested by the government and even give lectures
to leaders of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee. On the other hand,
they also write scholarly works to expound their viewpoints, which may differ
from those proposed by the government. In fact, some of them have even openly
criticised many government policies. Many experts have their special newspaper
columns and television programmes and have taken to sharing their opinions in
their blogs or microblogs. Nevertheless, there are very few follow- up or theor-
etical studies about Chinese experts at home and abroad. In particular, overseas
Preface vii
scholars who have studied the issues on Chinese experts or intellectuals are
mostly classified within the scope of ‘China studies’. Few China studies have
opened dialogues with modern political science and public policy theories.
Therefore, only a few studies have systematically explored the behavioural pat-
terns adopted by Chinese experts to become involved in policy change and the
selection mechanism from the level of general theories on public policy. In this
book, we have managed to construct a theory on expert involvement in policy
change with the aim of expounding on the acting strategies and selecting mecha-
nisms employed by Chinese experts in different types of policy changes.
Experts are always trying to identify the most effective actions to influence
policies based on their own resources. Thus, previous studies have suggested
that the control and reasonable use of certain resources can offer experts more
opportunities to become the key participants who can eventually influence pol-
icies. Understandably, an expert will often submit their own research results to
the government if he/she has a long-t erm cooperative relationship with the gov-
ernment, whilst those without such a relationship could only seek for other ways
to influence the government. Yet, resources owned by the expert could not act as
a full explanation. There are individual experts or research organisations with
different resource advantages in one policy area. In different areas of policy,
however, we can still observe completely different patterns adopted by experts
for involvement. Obviously, in their entirety, the nature of policy changes plays
a decisive role in the process so that an expert can stand out in a given policy
change by taking certain actions and strategies. Taking this clue as a starting
point in consideration, I construct a theory based on the attributes of policy
change and the mechanism relationship among patterns of expert involvement.
In this study, I propose that two attributes of policy change, namely, loss
embeddedness and knowledge complexity, influence the patterns of expert
involvement. I then construct the theoretical model that can be applied to
explain expert involvement on the aspect of policy. These two concepts resulted
in the development of two theories: policy network and principal–agent theories.
On the one hand, the main criticism against researchers engaged in policy
network was that scholars never established a verifiable theoretical hypothesis
for the connection between the structural attributes of the policy network and the
states of the policy process. The concept of loss embeddedness proposed in this
book is an attempt to establish a theoretical connection between a special struc-
tural attribute of the policy network and the behaviour patterns taken by experts
to participate in policy process. On the other hand, principal–agent theory
generally discusses the informational advantage held by an agent against the
principal. This book indicates that policy makers, as the principal, may have a
grasp of the key information on policy-m aking and have an incentive to keep the
information undisclosed as they invite experts to provide expertise and relevant
information during policy advisory activities. Therefore, the information asym-
metry existing in the principal–agent relationship during policy advisory
activities may be bidirectional. Based on the principal–agent model with the
state of bidirectional information asymmetry, this book proposes the concept of
viii Preface
knowledge complexity to interpret the limits and advantages held by policy
makers and experts in terms of knowledge and information in the process of
policy advisory.
Accordingly, the involvement of Chinese experts on the aspect of policy can
be categorised into four behavioural patterns: outside-i n enlightenment; linear
consultation; locked- out; and civic activism. In particular, this book innovatively
distinguishes those two indirect action strategies that might be taken by experts
who have failed to influence policy- making through direct channels, namely,
outside- in enlightenment and civic activism. Although both adopted the mode of
utilising the public consensus, they were essentially different. These theoretical
contributions are innovative ideas in the field of policy processes and studies on
expert involvement.
Under the stakeholder analysis framework, this study tested the theoretical
hypotheses mentioned above by applying comparative case studies. I carefully
selected four major cases on policy change to present the four theoretical types
of policy changes and the corresponding patterns of expert involvement. These
four cases include the new urban medical and healthcare system, the pilot pro-
motion of the new-t ype rural cooperative medical care system, the affordable
urban housing policy and the revocation of the detention and repatriation
system. Case selection has strictly complied with the design of a standard com-
parative case study, fully considered the logic of theoretical replication and con-
sciously ruled out various interference factors. For example, cases selected in
this study are all social policies, thus minimising the interest bias of the experts.
In order to speak with one voice for a discussion on comparative cases, all the
cases on policy changes selected by this study are those issued, approved or offi-
cially replied to by the State Council (or together with the Central Committee of
the CPC). Furthermore, efforts have been made to avoid reflexivity in the
interviews.
I would like to thank my wife, Su Yu, for her contribution to this book. The
original thought and framework of the theory involved in this book were derived
from the discussions I had with her. In 2008, while I was thinking about the
extent to which the pattern of expert involvement may be influenced by policy
changes, I shared my ideas with her for the first time. This topic soon became
the main content of our daily lives during that period and the theoretical frame-
work of this book was finalised through my constant discussions with her.
Throughout the whole process of theory construction, research and writing of
this book, numerous experts and scholars have offered me enthusiastic guidance
and support. First of all, for the theory construction and empirical study, I want
to thank my PhD advisor, Xue Lan, and some Chinese scholars, including Zhu
Guanglei, Yang Long, Chen Zhenming, Wang Shaoguang, Zheng Yongnian,
Lan Zhiyong, Ma Jun, Liu Yuanli, Ge Yanfeng, Su Tsai-T su, Tom K. Liou, Hon
S. Chan, Yang Mu, Deng Zhenglai, Gu Xin, Wang Hufeng, Cui Zhiyuan, Guo
Zhenzhi, He Baogang, Bi Jianhai, Li Cheng, Sun Tongwen, Tang Xinglin, Bo
Zhiyue, Yang Guobin, Lily Lee Tsai, Wang Zhengxu, Gore Lance Liangping,
Huang Yipeng, Yang Lihua, Li Wenzhao, Guo Chao, Zhan Xueyong, Zhang
Preface ix
Zhibin, Wu Fengshi, Wang Qinghua, Liu Peng, Fan Peng, Ru Peng, He Jingwei
and Hu Yinglian.
I also wish to thank foreign scholars, including Elizabeth J. Perry, Joseph
Fewsmith, Merle Goldman, Alasdair Roberts, David Shambaugh, Dan Guttman,
Mitter Rana, Richard M. Walker, Jacques deLisle, John Kennedy and Thomas
Kellogg. In addition, I would like to show my appreciation for my student
research assistants, including Zhou Huijin, Hua Pengwei, Wang Qianru, Yu
Xuesong, Chen Tingjia and Zhang Peipei, who have completed significant work
in collecting data for this book.
During the writing stage of this book, I gave academic reports successively at
Nankai University, Tsinghua University, Sun Yat-s en University, Hong Kong
University, Chungnam National University, Shanghai University of Finance and
Economics, Fudan University, Melbourne University, Singapore National
University, Renmin University of China and Peking University, among others.
Hereby, I would like to express my thanks to those experts and scholars who
have participated in the reports and international academic seminars, joined in
the discussions and shared their ideas. This book is a result of the integration
and extension of many academic papers I have issued and the monographic
work written in Chinese published by the Renmin University of China Press in
2012. Thus, I would like to acknowledge the chief editors, editors and
anonymous reviewers of Policy Sciences, Public Administration and Journal of
Contemporary China. I am very grateful to the staff of the Renmin University of
China Press and its executive editors, namely, Zhu Haiyan and Ye Hua. I wish
to thank them for their hard work and contribution, which facilitated the publica-
tion of the Chinese version. I would also like to thank Prof. Zheng Yongnian,
the Editor- in-Chief of the Routledge China Policy Series for recommending my
book proposal to the publisher, and Peter Sowden, Editor at Routledge, for his
efforts and patience during the book production stage.
Finally, I would like to thank the National Science Fund for Distinguished
Young Scholars of China (71625006) and the Innovative Research Group
Project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71721002) for
their sponsorship of this work.
Xufeng Zhu
March 2018