Formal Organizational Structure

1. Formal Organizational Structure Four administrative levels Central province county township Work unit: a unique feature in China

2. Organizational set-up at the central level Party: party congress, central committee, politburo, standing committee of the politburo, secretariat, central committee departments, military affairs commission line of authority among party organs Government: national people’s congress, standing committee of the NPC, State Council, commissions and ministries line of authority among government organs, and changes of government structure over the years

3. Organizational Set-up at the provincial level Basically mirroring the set-up at the central level how important is the provincial level in Chinese political system? As a vast country, the implementation of policies requires active co-operation from provinces, particularly during an era of decline of ideological discipline rich provinces provide net revenue to the centre many provinces are the size of countries the overall direction of reform has been to enhance the power of the province and other territorial units

4. Counties and Cities County as a stable level of administration in Chinese history basically counties derive political power from the same factors that bolster the position of the provinces vis-à-vis the central level Cities, depending on their size and importance, are of different ranks

5. Administration at sub-county level Commune, production brigade, and production team township/town, village committee and economic association township as the lowest level of state administration

6. Work Units Work units as multipurpose bodies providing housing, recreational activities, schooling for children, health care etc. work units as the only source of supply of basic necessities during the Maoist era work unit as instrument of political control land mobilization low mobility among work units the impact of reform on the work unit system

7. The Matrix problem: tiao/kuan issue The matrix problem for all large-scale organizations Why is this problem especially important in China? Unitary system central economic planning Tiao: vertical bureaucracies on the basis of specialized functions Kuai: horizontal coordinating bodies organized on the basis of territorial units

8. Tiao-kuai issue Tiao/kuai guanxi refers to the relationship between the vertical authority and horizontal authority and the tension and conflict arising from such relationship leadership relationship (lingdao guanxi) and professional relationship (yewu guanxi): the assignment of primary leadership

9. Tiao-kuai issue Tiao-kuai guanxi and fragmented authority: the problem of having many bosses vetoing power of one of these bosses the tendency for the conflicts among bureaucratic units to be pushed up and overload of the central level tiao-kuai guanxi and bargaining

10. Techniques for overcoming fragmentation of authority Ideology and its declining importance in the reform era bargaining among different bureaucratic actors to construct a consensus