Nothing New Under “Top-Level Design”? A Review of the Conceptual Literature on Local Policymaking in China

Abstract

Scholarship on local governance in China in general and on the Chinese policy process in particular has expanded remarkably over the last four decades. Where earlier studies were mostly interested in grasping the dynamics of central-local relations, more specific features like performance evaluation systems or policy implementation processes have come under scholarly scrutiny over the course of time. New theoretical concepts have been introduced to explain phenomena pertaining to local governance, and this research has become ever more specialized. In this state-of-the art review, we trace the trajectories of research on the Chinese policy process in the reform era in two distinct periods before and after the inauguration of current CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping. By drawing on prominent theoretical and conceptual approaches to understanding and assessing the Chinese policy process in these two periods, we highlight the changes and continuities in local policymaking under Xi’s “top-level design.” Although most recent studies indicate increasing top-down centralization in the local Chinese state, it seems that the basic institutional prerequisites of the policy process have hardly been altered. Therefore, most of the older conceptual characterizations of local policymaking still very much hold water. Still, we do conclude by pointing to some so far understudied aspects of local policymaking in China.