Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

The Politics of Local Justice Expenditure in China

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Chinese Political Science Review Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper analyzes how justice expenditure—spending on public order and safety—in Chinese counties is affected by local and national political factors. Despite the central government’s apparent concern over social order and stability, under the institutional framework of weak downward accountability and limited upward accountability local leaders are not incentivized to respond effectively to either public demand or national imperatives for public order and safety. Confirming the influence of local leaders’ political career incentives, a panel data regression analysis on a comprehensive county-level data set for the years from 1997 through 2002 suggests that the share of justice spending reaches the lowest point during a chief executive's third year in office and a party secretary's fourth year in office. In contrast, national political factors, such as the centrally mandated anti-crime campaigns or the nationally designated minority or poor counties, have no consistent effect on and could even depress local justice spending.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Source: Shanghai Bureau of Finance (2009). Police spending from 1991 through 1996 included state security spending

Fig. 2

Source: China Fiscal Yearbooks

Fig. 3

Source: China Fiscal Yearbooks and Fiscal Statistics of Prefectures, Cities, and Counties of China

Fig. 4

Source: National Bureau of Statistics (2019)

Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ajilore, Olugbenga, and John Smith. 2011. Ethnic Fragmentation and Police Spending. Applied Economics Letters 18 (4): 329–332.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brewer, John D., Adrian Guelke, Ian Hume, Edward Moxon-Browne, and Rick Wilford. 1996. Policing in Great Britain, Northern Ireland, the Irish Republic, the USA, Israel, South Africa and China, 2nd ed. New York: St. Martin's Press Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buckley, Chris. 2012. “China Domestic Security Spending Rises to $111 Billion.” Online at Reuters (https://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/05/us-china-parliament-security-idUSTRE82403J20120305).

  • Cai, Yongshun. 2008a. Local Governments and the Suppression of Popular Resistance in China. The China Quarterly 193: 24–42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cai, Yongshun. 2008b. Power Structure and Regime Resilience: Contentious Politics in China. British Journal of Political Science 38 (3): 411–432.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Central Committee, the Communist Party of China. 2019. Regulations on Political-Legal Work of the Communist Party of China. https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/2019-01/18/content_5359135.htm

  • Central Committee on the Comprehensive Management of Social Order and Safety, the Communist Party of China. 1991. Regulations on Implementing the System of One-Ballet Veto for the Comprehensive Management of Social Order and Safety. December 25th.

  • Chen, Xi. 2013. The Rising Cost of Stability. Journal of Democracy 24 (1): 57–64.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dai, Mengyan. 2008. Policing in the People's Republic of China: A Review of Recent Literature. Crime, Law, and Social Change 50: 211–227.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Distelhorst, Greg, and Yue Hou. 2017. Constituency Service under Nondemocratic Rule: Evidence from China. The Journal of Politics 79 (3): 1024–1040.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dutton, Michael. 2005. Policing Chinese Politics: A History. Durham: Duke University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Fan, Peng, Weihua Wang, and Shaoguang Wang. 2009. “The Trajectory and Logic of the Building of the State's Coercive Capacity in China [Zhongguo guojia qiangzhi nengli jianshe de guiji yu luoji].” Comparison of Economic and Social Systems [Jingji shehui tizhi bijiao], Issue 5, pages 33–42.

  • Fan, Peng and Junjian Yi. 2009. “Decentralization, Crime, and the Development of Coercive Capacity: An Empirical Analysis of the Public Security Expenditure in Reform China [Difang fenquan, shehui fanzui yu guojia qiangzhi nengli zengzhang – Jiyu gaige shiqi Zhongguo gong'an caizheng jingfei fazhan de shizheng fenxi].” World Economic Literature [Shijie jingji wenhui], Issue 2, pages 99–120.

  • General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council. 2016. “Regulations on Strengthening and Implementing the Leader Responsibility System on the Comprehensive Management of Social Order and Safety.” People's Daily, March 24th, Page 6.

  • Gerber, Elisabeth R., and Daniel J. Hopkins. 2011. When Mayors Matter: Estimating the Impact of Mayoral Partisanship on City Policy. American Journal of Political Science 55 (2): 326–339.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guo, Gang. 2007. Retrospective Economic Accountability under Authoritarianism: Evidence from China. Political Research Quarterly 60 (3): 378–390.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guo, Gang. 2009. China's Local Political Budget Cycles. American Journal of Political Science 53 (3): 620–631.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Habibullah, Muzafar Shah, and Abdul Hamid Baharom. 2009. Crime and economic conditions in Malaysia. International Journal of Social Economics 36 (11): 1071–1081.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • He, Weifang. 2007. The Police and the Rule of Law: Commentary on 'Principals and Secret Agents'. The China Quarterly 191: 671–674.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levitt, Steven D. 1997. Using Electoral Cycles in Police Hiring to Estimate the Effect of Police on Crime. The American Economic Review 87 (3): 270–290.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liang, Bin. 2005. Severe Strike Campaign in Transitional China. Journal of Criminal Justice 33 (4): 387–399.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, Jianhong. 2006. Modernization and Crime Patterns in China. Journal of Criminal Justice 34: 119–130.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, Jianhong, Lening Zhang, and Steven F. Messner (eds.). 2001. Crime and Social Control in a Changing China. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • National Bureau of Statistics, Government of the People's Republic of China. 2019. National Data. Online at (https://data.stats.gov.cn)

  • National Bureau of Statistics, Government of the People's Republic of China. 2020. Other National Statistical Reports. Online at (https://www.stats.gov.cn/tjsj/tjgb/qttjgb/qgqttjgb)

  • O’Brien, Kevin J., and Lianjiang Li. 1999. Selective Policy Implementation in Rural China. Comparative Politics 31 (2): 167–186.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • OECD. 2020. General Government Spending (indicator). https://data.oecd.org/gga/general-government-spending.htm

  • Saha, Sarani. 2011. City-level analysis of the effect of political regimes on public good provision. Public Choice 147 (1–2): 155–171.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shanghai Bureau of Finance. 2009. Shanghai Fiscal and Taxation Record 1991–2005. https://czj.sh.gov.cn/zss/zfxx/czls/shcsswz

  • Tanner, Murry Scot, and Eric Green. 2007. Principals and Secret Agents: Central Versus Local Control Over Policing and Obstacles to ‘Rule of Law’ in China. The China Quarterly 191: 644–670.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • The Bureau of Justice Statistics, the Office of Justice Programs in the U.S. Department of Justice. 2018. Publications & Products: Justice Expenditure and Employment. https://bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbse&sid=33

  • Trevaskes, Susan. 2003. Yanda 2001: Form and Strategy in a Chinese Anti-crime Campaign. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology 36 (3): 272–292.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tsai, Lili L. 2007. Solidary Groups, Informal Accountability, and Local Public Goods Provision in Rural China. The American Political Science Review 101 (2): 355–372.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walmsley, Roy. 2018. World Prison Population List, Twelfth Edition. Institute for Criminal Policy Research, Birkbeck University of London. https://www.prisonstudies.org/sites/default/files/resources/downloads/wppl_12.pdf.

  • Wang, Yuhua. 2014a. Coercive Capacity and the Durability of the Chinese Communist State. Communist and Post-Communist Studies 47: 13–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang, Yuhua. 2014b. Empowering the Police: How the Chinese Communist Party Manages Its Coercive Leaders. The China Quarterly 219: 625–648.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang, Yuhua, and Carl Minzner. 2015. The Rise of the Chinese Security State. The China Quarterly 222: 339–359.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wen, Philip. 2018. “Security Spending Soars in China's Troubled Xinjiang Region: Report.” Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-xinjiang/security-spending-soars-in-chinas-troubled-xinjiang-region-report-idUSKCN1NB0AT.

  • Xie, Yue. 2013. Rising Central Spending on Public Security and the Dilemma Facing Grassroots Officials in China. Journal of Current Chinese Affairs 42 (2): 79–109.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yu, Jie. 2010. “Taiyuan Public Safety Bureau Claims Crime Greatly Decreased After All Policemen Were Rehired through Competition [Taiyuan gong'anju cheng minjing quanyuan xiagang jingpin hou jingqing dafu xiajiang].” Jinghua Times [Jinghua shibao]. https://news.sina.com.cn/c/sd/2010-04-06/092320015157.shtml.

  • Zhong, Yang. 2003. Local Government and Politics in China: Challenges from Below. Armonk: M.E. Sharpe.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhou, Kai, and Xiaojun Yan. 2014. The Quest for Stability: Policing Popular Protest in the People's Republic of China. Problems of Post-Communism 61 (3): 3–17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Science, The University of Mississippi, 128 Deupree Hall, University, MS, 38677-1848, USA

    Gang Guo

Authors
  1. Gang Guo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gang Guo.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The author states that there is no conflict of interest.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Guo, G. The Politics of Local Justice Expenditure in China. Chin. Polit. Sci. Rev. 5, 374–394 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41111-020-00152-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41111-020-00152-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation