AbstractsPolitical Science

Reform of county government in contemporary China: towards self- in the Chinese political system? In this thesis I focus on the topic of government reform at the county level after economic reform in 1978. As we know, China has begun its economic reform first at the county level. A few years later, reform of local government had to be carried out in order to suit the economic reform. The process has been lasted for nearly twenty years. The change is so dramatically when we compare the function of local government in 1998 to that in 1980. Local government becomes more autonomous, more self-governed and more active both politically and economically. Why local government in China reform in this way, how it changed and in what direction it would develop in future? What I do in this thesis is an analysis of policy development about county government in current China. By analysing the second-hand materials such as administrative documents, laws and regulations, speeches by leadership and investigation by other scholars, I attempt to follow the policy development on county government from 1978 up to present. My analysis tries to capture some of the dynamics of change and continuity in the reform process of county governments in current China and traces over a period of twenty years in order to study whether the county governments are reforming towards a position of greater autonomous self-government. In doing this, I analyse the reform of county government around three basic sets of values of self-government, namely: administrative efficiency, autonomy and democratic participation. As the county government reform is not an isolated phenomenon, it is analysed in the context of political and economic reform in general. I first discussed the theoretical perspectives about local government reform in western countries and the Chinese political and administrative system, including the unique position of the Chinese Communist Party. After that, I analysed the three county government reforms in 1982, 1988 and 1993 respectively. I studied the background of the reform and point out that the first county government reform played an experimental role for the further government reforms. I analysed the county government reform from 1987 up to present. Here I go further to study from several values concerning the self-government at county level, such as: the change of legal structure, local autonomy, and democratic participation and government efficiency. The relation among three major actors of the reform, namely - the Chinese Communist Party, the government and the state-owned enterprises at county level and their influence on the government reform is also discussed. My conclusion is that after the reform, Chinese county governments have moved towards a semi self-government in Chinese political system.