The industrial organization of Chinese government /
Yasheng Huang.
Description
- Language(s)
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English
- Published
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[Boston] : Division of Research, Harvard Business School, c1998.
- Summary
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Conventional analysis of government typically focuses on "politics," i.e., interests, conflicts or personalities. But governing a country is not only a task of successfully governing its people but also an administrative task of managing subordinate officials. This is a very relevant issue in a country such as China. In China, there are around forty ministries, thirty provincial governments, 2,400 country governments, and some 30,000 township governments; the entire political system employs over 10 million people. The top "managers" of the country--some thirty national leaders--not only make policies but also manage a large number of bureaucratic personnel. As in business organizations, control problems occur when subordinates have different interests from those of the organization and when the behavior of subordinates is imperfectly monitored. Control mechanisms are designed to minimize control problems by either aligning interests or improving information. This article uses this framework to explain a wide variety of administrative phenomena in Chinese government organizations. One implication of the findings is that the Chinese political system seems to be able to select the "right" people to the top levels of the government.
- Physical Description
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35 p. :
ill. ;
28 cm.
Viewability