Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-jbqgn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-13T14:33:00.387Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Blame Avoidance in China's Cadre Responsibility System

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 February 2021

Jiayuan Li Open the ORCID record for Jiayuan Li [Opens in a new window] ,
Xing Ni  and
Rui Wang
Jiayuan Li
Affiliation:
SouthChinaUniversity of Technology, Guangzhou, China. Email: kawing1126@gmail.com.
Xing Ni*
Affiliation:
South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China.
Rui Wang
Affiliation:
Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China. Email: amber182@163.com.
*
Email: nixing1999@sina.com (corresponding author).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article contends that prior research on the behaviour of Chinese local cadres pays limited attention to their motivation for avoiding blame. Using qualitative data from three field studies conducted in Guangdong province, the study focuses on blame avoidance in the cadre responsibility system, which is recognized as an important instrument for state capacity building. Our analysis uncovers three major discursive strategies used by grassroots cadres to manage blame either before or after it is apportioned: de-legitimating performance standards, re-attributing blame and transferring blame risk. We find that local cadres have a role as blame makers in shifting blame and accusations. This finding challenges the conventional view, which typically sees local officials as blame takers. The article concludes by elaborating on the wider implications of this finding and proposing avenues for future research.

摘要

摘要

我们认为关于中国地方官员行为的研究并未给予避责现象足够的注意力。基于广东实地调查的质性数据，本文围绕这一主题进一步展开研究。我们聚焦发生于干部责任制中的避责现象，该制度设计被普遍认为是中国国家能力建设的重要工具。我们分析了基层官员在追责发生前和发生后采用何种话语策略对责任进行管理。我们发现这些策略包括质疑考核标准的正当性，对过失进行再归因，以及转移责任风险。我们有关地方官员作为责任推卸者的发现挑战了既有的观点，即地方官员被普遍认为是 “替罪羊”。 在讨论部分，我们进一步阐述了本研究更为一般化的意涵，并展望了未来研究的可能方向。

Keywords

blame avoidanceChinese local governmentqualitative researchcadre responsibility systemdiscursive analysis避责中国地方政府质性研究干部责任制话语分析
Type
Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 247 , September 2021 , pp. 681 - 702
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. SOAS University of London, 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bovens, Mark. 2005. “Public accountability.” In Ferlie, Ewan, Lynn, Laurence E. and Pollitt, Christopher (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Public Management. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 182–208.Google Scholar
Cai, Yongshun. 2000. “Between state and peasant: local cadres and statistical reporting in rural China.” The China Quarterly 163, 783–805.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cai, Yongshun. 2008. “Power structure and regime resilience: contentious politics in China.” British Journal of Political Science 38(3), 411–432.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chan, Hon S., and Gao, Jie. 2008. “Performance measurement in Chinese local governments: guest editors’ introduction.” Chinese Law and Government 41(2/3), 4–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chan, Hon S., and Gao, Jie. 2012. “Death versus GDP! Decoding the fatality indicators on work safety regulation in post-Deng China.” The China Quarterly 210, 355–377.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, Xi. 2017. “Origins of informal coercion in China.” Politics and Society 45(1), 67–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edin, Maria. 2003. “State capacity and local agent control in China: CCP cadre management from a township perspective.” The China Quarterly 173, 35–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feldman, Martha S., and March, James G.. 1981. “Information in organizations as signal and symbol.” Administrative Science Quarterly 26(2), 171–186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Franco-Santos, Monica, and Otley, David. 2018. “Reviewing and theorizing the unintended consequences of performance management systems.” International Journal of Management Reviews 20(3), 696–730.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gao, Jie. 2009. “Governing by goals and numbers: a case study in the use of performance measurement to build state capacity in China.” Public Administration and Development 29(1), 21–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gao, Jie. 2015. “Pernicious manipulation of performance measures in China's cadre evaluation system.” The China Quarterly 223, 618–637.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hansson, Sten. 2015. “Discursive strategies of blame avoidance in government: a framework for analysis.” Discourse and Society 26(3), 297–322.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hansson, Sten. 2018. “The discursive micro-politics of blame avoidance: unpacking the language of government blame games.” Policy Sciences 51(4), 545–564.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
He, Baogang. 2011. “Civic engagement through participatory budgeting in China: three different logics at work.” Public Administration and Development 31(2), 122–133.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hinterleitner, Markus, and Sager, Fritz. 2016. “Anticipatory and reactive forms of blame avoidance: of foxes and lions.” European Political Science Review 9(4), 587–606.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hood, Christopher. 2010. The Blame Game: Spin, Bureaucracy, and Self-Preservation in Government. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howlett, Michael. 2014. “Why are policy innovations rare and so often negative? Blame avoidance and problem denial in climate change policy-making.” Global Environmental Change 29, 395–403.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huang, Xian. 2015. “Four worlds of welfare: understanding subnational variation in Chinese social health insurance.” The China Quarterly 222, 449–474.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lerner, Jennifer S., and Tetlock, Philip E.. 1999. “Accounting for the effects of accountability.” Psychological Bulletin 125(2), 255–275.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Li, Jiayuan. 2015. “The paradox of performance regimes: strategic responses to target regimes in Chinese local government.” Public Administration 93(4), 1152–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
March, James G. 1987. “Ambiguity and accounting: the elusive link between information and decision making.” Accounting, Organizations and Society 12(2), 153–168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mortensen, Peter B. 2013. “Public sector reform and blame avoidance effects.” Journal of Public Policy 33(2), 229–253.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moynihan, Donald P. 2012. “Extra-network organizational reputation and blame avoidance in networks: the Hurricane Katrina example.” Governance 25(4), 567–588.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ni, Xing, and Wang, Rui. 2017. “From credit claiming to blame avoidance: the change of government officials’ behavior.” CASS Journal of Political Science (2), 42–51.Google Scholar
Phillips, Nelson, and Hardy, Cynthia. 2002. Discourse Analysis: Investigating Processes of Social Construction. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pollitt, Christopher. 2003. The Essential Public Manager. Buckingham: McGraw Hill.Google Scholar
Ran, Ran. 2017. “Understanding blame politics in China's decentralized system of environmental governance: actors, strategies and context.” The China Quarterly 231, 634–661.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rothstein, Bo. 2015. “The Chinese paradox of high growth and low quality of government: the cadre organization meets Max Weber.” Governance 28(4), 533–548.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saldaña, Johnny. 2015. The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Sauder, Michael, and Espeland, Wendy Nelson. 2009. “The discipline of rankings: tight coupling and organizational change.” American Sociological Review 74(1), 63–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wallace, Jeremy L. 2016. “Juking the stats? Authoritarian information problems in China.” British Journal of Political Science 46(1), 11–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weaver, R. Kent. 1986. “The politics of blame avoidance.” Journal of Public Policy 6(4), 371–398.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xu, Jianhua. 2017. “Legitimization imperative: the production of crime statistics in Guangzhou, China.” The British Journal of Criminology 58(1), 155–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhao, Suisheng. 2010. “The China model: can it replace the Western model of modernization?” Journal of Contemporary China 19(65), 419–436.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhou, Xueguang. 2010. “The institutional logic of collusion among local governments in China.” Modern China 36(1), 47–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar