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Of time, leadership, and governance: Elite incentives and stability maintenance in China
Author(s) -
Hou Linke,
Liu Mingxing,
Yang Dali L.,
Xue Ji
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
governance
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.46
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1468-0491
pISSN - 0952-1895
DOI - 10.1111/gove.12286
Subject(s) - elite , corporate governance , china , incentive , coercion (linguistics) , public administration , political science , order (exchange) , political economy , economics , law , management , market economy , politics , finance , linguistics , philosophy
China's party‐controlled elite appointment system has been praised for contributing to growth and order in recent decades. Inspired by Mancur Olson's insight into elite incentives and governance, we examine how the Chinese practices of elite management affect the character of governance using unique survey and interview data on township leaders and social contention. We find that, first, externally appointed party secretaries experience more petitions and mass incidents during their tenure and are more likely to use coercion to deal with petitions than internally appointed secretaries. Second, these tendencies are moderated when externally appointed party secretaries are paired with internally appointed township heads We explore the implications of such behavioral differences and suggest our findings are of broad significance for understanding governance in China.