Policy implementation in post-mao China/ edited by David M. Lampton

Deng Xiaoping and his political allies have undertaken reform initiatives aimed at changing the structure and operation of China's economy, altering the policy-making system, revitalizing and upgrading the edu cational and research systems, changing the nation's demographics, and transforming China's relationship to the world economy. Is it possible for mass societies with complex bureaucracies to target social purposes and proceed to implement them? What are the factors that promote or impede policy imple mentation? How does the implementation process in China compare with the experi ence elsewhere? Using case studies the con tributors to this volume address these questions and offer a comprehensive analysis of reform policies in post-Mao China.

The volume covers a wide variety of sub jects: taxation, water conservancy, energy, agriculture, population planning, forestry, education, prices, election policy, and science and technology. The picture that emerges is of a society in which the efforts to build con sensus are extensive, involving a protracted process that can slow and distort policy im plementation. Bargaining remains a key fac tor in the system. China is a fragmented society whose various institutions have more power to obstruct action than to assure com pliance. As implementation proceeds, unan ticipated consequences frequently abort or radically transform the initial policy. Finally, the degree of change is limited by the incre mental nature of the Chinese budgetary system.