Key Insights

1. Does China have a modern form of government?
2. China’s National Government as a Hierarchy: is it centralized? Meritocratic?

Forms of Government

1. Modern Government Model (“European Model”—Enlightenment English/Scottish/French): state should adjudicate interests in a fair and legitimate fashion
   • US Government Model: hybrid, constitutional, late 18th entry design (i.e. “government is designed to stop things”)
2. Alternative Model (“Developer Model”): State’s purpose is to push national progress through economic and military strength (i.e. “the government pushes things forward)
   • China
   • Axis Powers

Modern Government

We typical define a modern government as a liberal democratic government. But China’s system is in some sense much newer than liberal democracy—invented by the Soviets.

China’s Government

1. Mobilization of unity
2. Coordination of resources to attain national wealth and power

Governmental Legitimacy

1. procedural legitamacy: goal is to maintain fairness and rule-based allocation of benefits; state is not the party; assumes neoclassic theories that this brings the best outcomes
2. performance legitimacy: goal is to deliver benefits to a population; political party is merged into the state, and executives are not law-constrained

Structure is more “corporate”: a “disciplined unitary hierarchy.” Unlike Russia / Venezuela / Myanmar.

China’s System’s Strengths and Advantages

• stability for economic development
• unity of action and consensus
• ease of formulating policy and its implementation
• pragmatic, flexible, and development oriented
• meritocratic
• legitimacy based on performance
• does not invite ideologically divided multi-party systems

China’s System’s Weakness

• too rigid, cautious, and too focused on security
• useful information flow suppressed
• too large and centralized to manage effectively
• designed to rule over underdeveloped economy
• failed almost everywhere else
• vulnerable to corruption

Organization of a party-state

• more like a corporation (not nested)
• single hierarchy to a single carear ladder
• specialized divisions (propaganda, personnel, security)
• “authoritarian” structure
• no democracy (i.e. employees don’t set policy)
• employees in a corporation can’t criticize its leadership

In particular: no federal principle; career paths begin at the bottom and go to the top, with an HR department. Federal systems have multiple competing governments, but no central direction (i.e., Gavin Newsom can’t tell Daniel Lurie what to do).

Promotion Rules

Is it Meritocratic?

• Yes: no one is promoted without evaluating a record of past service, qualifications, experience
• No: as usual, this is usual civil service—patronage and connections matter (leaders select advisors and cabinet members from outside)

On top of the meritocratic framework, power balances / favors may shift decisions.

Unique

• 1.2 million public employees at all levels << 2 million US federal government
• China is the most decentralized country in the world by revenue shares: i.e., local government spends much more than it earns, so relies on central government to spread revenue around

Control of Information

Party has to control information to reinforce political cohesion and unity.