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The Unfulfilled Promise of Collaborative Governance: The Case of Low-Income Housing in Jiangsu

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The Palgrave Handbook of Local Governance in Contemporary China

Abstract

In this chapter, we explore the development of urban community governance in China, specifically the interaction of local government, social organizations, community, and citizens in urban community governance. To explore this interaction, we selected the case of collaborative governance in urban housing, because by the 2000s the cost of housing was one of the top concerns of urban residents across the country. Based on evidence from affordable housing (AH) policy in Jiangsu, we find that the state continues to dominate the policy process. Despite state rhetoric encouraging collaborative governance, non-state actors (NSAs), such as businesses and community organizations, tend to be excluded from AH policymaking and implementation. We suggest several ways that NSAs could be involved to improve AH policy in the future.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    As housing costs are a far more severe problem in urban areas, and we can assume that the proportion of respondents concerned about this issue would be even higher if rural respondents were omitted.

  2. 2.

    We use the term “non-state actor” to encompass entities that are not officially part of the government, including private enterprise, think tanks, nonprofit organizations, nongovernmental organizations, community organizations, and social organizations.

  3. 3.

    We do not engage in the ongoing debate about the meaning of the term “governance” in this chapter but simply use it as to mean the collective process of policymaking and implementation or, more specifically, the way that state actors, or any other included stakeholders, collectively decide on specific policies and then implement these policies. In this way, we view governance as an activity or process rather than an outcome.

  4. 4.

    Standard AH programs initiated by the central government in the Hu Jintao era include cheap rental housing (CRH), economic and comfortable housing (ECH), and public rental housing (PRH). CRH targets low-income households and makes rental housing accessible through rent control, rent subsidies, and rent reduction. CRH can be provided by public or private entities. ECH is usually a homeownership program for low-income households (and middle-income households before 2007), which utilizes free or low-cost land from the municipal government and dwellings built by developers. PRH is a rental program for lower middle-income households and some qualifying migrants in which the government may provide free land, regulated rents, or reduced fees and taxes. PRH may be provided by public or private entities (Huang 2012).

  5. 5.

    Translation by Alice Yang. Original in Chinese.

  6. 6.

    Translation by the authors. Original in Chinese.

  7. 7.

    The correlation coefficient between the percent of the provincial budget allocated to AH and GRP per capita is −0.57.

  8. 8.

    Translation by Alice Yang. Original in Chinese.

  9. 9.

    Translation by Alice Yang. Original in Chinese.

  10. 10.

    Translation by Alice Yang. Original in Chinese.

  11. 11.

    Translation by Alice Yang. Original in Chinese.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Amherst College, Amherst, MA, USA

    Kerry Ratigan

  2. Political Science Department, Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT, USA

    Jessica C. Teets

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  1. Kerry Ratigan
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  2. Jessica C. Teets
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Correspondence to Jessica C. Teets .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Affairs, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China

    Jianxing Yu

  2. Department of Political Science, and Center for US-China Policy Studies, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Sujian Guo

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Ratigan, K., Teets, J.C. (2019). The Unfulfilled Promise of Collaborative Governance: The Case of Low-Income Housing in Jiangsu. In: Yu, J., Guo, S. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Local Governance in Contemporary China. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2799-5_16

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