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Internal Government Assessments of the Quality of Governance in China

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Abstract

Internal assessments of the quality of governance allow authoritarian regimes to identify and address public discontent before it threatens regime stability. This article provides a theory of how the information necessary to produce such assessments is collected, processed, and utilized to guide policy. The empirical focus of the article is on China, which is used to illustrate how information-gathering channels in communist autocracies differ from those used in electoral autocracies. The theoretical argument of the article is that petitions rather than elections function as the main channel for gathering information on popular perceptions about governance problems in communist autocracies. Information compiled through the analysis of petitions is valued because it allows the leadership to identify problems with policy implementation; to track corruption; and to monitor the level of popular trust in the regime. Although protests provide similar information, they can threaten stability. Therefore, the advantage of petitions from the perspective of the regime is that they allow for routine information transfer without compromising stability maintenance. This study is based primarily on previously unavailable archival sources and on a systematic analysis of internal-circulation (neibu) materials, which provide insight into internal government understandings of governance problems in China.

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Notes

  1. Communist regimes are the most durable type of non-democratic regime, outlasting both noncommunist single-party regimes and non-democratic monarchies. As of 2000, the average lifespan of noncommunist single-party regimes was 28.51 years and that of non-democratic monarchies was 34.75 years. In contrast, communist single-party regimes had an average lifespan of 46.2 years as of 2000. My dataset includes 39 noncommunist single-party regimes (based partially on Smith 2005), 20 non-democratic monarchies, and 15 communist regimes. As of 2014, the five existing communist regimes have an average lifespan of 57 years.

  2. The most important pre-perestroika Soviet case is the Novocherkassk riot of 1962. On the lessons learned, see the following KGB archival documents: TsKhSD, F. 89 per. 6 d. 11 [1962] and d. 12 [1962]. Also see Kozlov (1999) and Dimitrov (2014b).

  3. On the tracking of rumors under Stalin, see Johnston 2011; on rumors in China, see Smith 2006.

  4. This is by no means a uniquely Chinese understanding: archival evidence reveals that Soviet leaders had a similar interpretation of downward trends in the volume of petitions (f. 646 op. 1 d. 3 [1990]: 11). Also see Dimitrov (2013).

  5. Soviet archival documents indicate that the Soviet leadership had a similar interpretation of protests (Kozlov 1999).

References

China Interviews

  • 020919B, with representatives of the Central Discipline Inspection Commission and the Ministry of Supervision, Beijing, September 19, 2002

  • 110729, with the director of the Office of Citizen Complaints, Zouping County, Shandong Province, July 29, 2011

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Issues of Renmin xinfang [RX] (People’s letters and visits)

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  • no. 7/1986.

  • no. 4/1987.

  • no. 1/1988.

  • no. 2/1989

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  • no. 11/1989

  • no. 2/1990

  • no. 2/1991

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  • no. 3/2000

  • no. 7/2000

  • no. 3/2003

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Issues of Shandong xinfang (Shandong letters and visits)

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Issues of Guangdong shengqing neican (Internal Reference on the Situation in Guangdong Province)

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Documents from the Shanghai Municial Archive (SMA)

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Chinese Gazetteers

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Soviet Archival Documents

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  • TsKhSD, f. 4 op. 20 d. 467 (1968)

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Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Francis Fukuyama, the participants in the workshop “Assessing the Quality of Governance in China” (held in Sonoma on November 12–13, 2012), and the two anonymous reviewers for SCID for very helpful feedback.

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  1. Department of Political Science, Tulane University, 305 Norman Mayer, New Orleans, LA, 70118, USA

    Martin K. Dimitrov

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Dimitrov, M.K. Internal Government Assessments of the Quality of Governance in China. St Comp Int Dev 50, 50–72 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12116-014-9170-2

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