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Strategic Modelling: “Building a New Socialist Countryside” in Three Chinese Counties*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

Anna L. Ahlers  and
Gunter Schubert
Anna L. Ahlers
Affiliation:
University of Bonn. Email: aahlers@uni-bonn.de.
Gunter Schubert
Affiliation:
University of Tübingen. Email: gunter.schubert@uni-tuebingen.de.
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Abstract

Models, pilots and experiments are considered distinctive features of the Chinese policy process. However, empirical studies on local modelling practices are rare. This article analyses the ways in which three rural counties in three different provinces engage in strategies of modelling and piloting to implement the central government's “Building a New Socialist Countryside” (shehuizhuyi xinnongcun jianshe) programme. It explains how county and township governments apply these strategies and to what effect. It also highlights the scope and limitations of local models and pilots as useful mechanisms for spurring national development. The authors plead for a fresh look at local modelling practices, arguing that these can tell us much about the realities of governance in rural China today.

Keywords

Building a New Socialist Countrysidemodel villagesmodelling strategieslocal policy implementationlocal governancelocal agencyrural China
Type
Articles
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 216 , December 2013 , pp. 831 - 849
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 2013 

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Footnotes

*

We would like to thank Thomas Heberer, Linda Chelan Li, Li Lianjiang, Graeme Smith, Yang Xuedong and Zhou Xueguang for their comments on earlier drafts of this paper.

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