Chinese Public Administration Review

A concerted effort to introduce thoroughgoing reforms into U.S. national administration began in September 1993, when the Clinton-Gore administration issued the first report of the National Performance Review (NPR). The continuing reform effort, which is generally called “reinventing government” in the United States, shares many characteristics with the broader global New Public Management (NPM) movement and is often treated as part of it. The American NPM-style reform program was augmented by congressional attempts to make national agencies more performance-oriented. President George W. Bush, who took office in January 2001, continued to advance several NPM goals, though with some important differences. There is no parallel period of such fundamental, comprehensive, and concentrated administrative reform in American history. The reform agenda has been coherent and consistent enough to allow reflection on its efficacy in terms of its own objectives. These were: 1) making government work better and cost less and 2) building citizens’ trust in it. We made two conclusions within this paper. First, the record of the NPM's achievement of greater cost-effectiveness is ambiguous, disputing the Clinton-Gore administration's central claims; the public as a whole perceives no reduction in the waste of its tax dollars. Second, the NPM fell far short of building significantly greater trust in government.

More than 246,000 people were killed in the 1976 Tangshan Earthquake. In Qinglong County, despite the collapse of 180,000 buildings, no deaths were attributable to the earthquake and its aftershocks. The case of Qinglong County illustrates excellent coordination among public administrators, scientists and citizens and features pro-active policies, local government initiative, thorough implementation, delegation, information sharing, and citizen participation. These lessons are applied to the response to Hurricane Katrina in the United States in 2005.

This article describes and examines the newly implemented basic medical insurance system for urban employees in China. The insurance system was built on two distinct concepts, individual providence and social insurance, and was characterized by national government mandates, local government administration, and employer/employee contributions. The study found that the Chinese basic medical insurance program for urban employees was implemented in all major urban areas. About 130 million people were covered under the scheme as of May 2005. The program benefits are limited with relatively low ceilings on reimbursable expenses and high cost sharing from the insured. The procedure for reimbursement is complicated and time consuming. China can learn from the U.S. and Canadian systems in both financing and providing healthcare. The U.S. system arguably supplies the best medical services in terms of quality and accessibility for those who are insured and those who can pay out of pocket. But the huge costs may not work well with China at present. The Canadian system, which is relatively effective, efficient, and equitable, although not as accessible, may fit China better. The study also suggests that the U.S. employer-based healthcare insurance system requires a major overhaul. It puts U.S. companies at a disadvantaged position in the increasingly competitive global marketplace.

Discussion of how to develop a modern tax system is important for the Chinese government with China's urbanization and economic development and with the enlarged income gap among its population. This paper explores the strengths and weaknesses of China's tax system by applying the criteria that scholars use in judging revenue sources. The existing Chinese tax system is regressive, complex, and lacks revenue adequacy. To correct its weaknesses, several tax reform recommendations are made. This includes broadening individual income tax among top income individuals and expanding the circle gradually, expanding consumption tax, and eliminating unnecessary preferential tax treatments in all taxes.

This paper, on the basis of documentary analysis, examines the CCP's monopoly of cadre management. The basic question to be answered is what the relationships among the Party, the state and the cadres are through an analysis of how the Party manages the cadres. Constitutionally, both the legislature (the people's congress in Chinese lexicon) and the government have extensive authority in cadre management. In reality, there is no state autonomy in personnel, and the state exercises its cadre management functions and duties through the party branches dispatched by the CCP committees. This study shows that the cadre management system is still highly centralized, a heritage with which all the reformists have to deal. This is the background to understand the evolution of the system reforms both at present and in the future. This paper is descriptive, but creatively descriptive in that it depicts a picture of how the Party manages its cadres.

With its rapid economic development, China plays a key role in the world energy economy. Its future energy path will influence the world's future. On February 28, 2005, China passed a comprehensive Renewable Energy Law, which was a major policy change for the Chinese government. This article investigates the legislative process of the law and uses this as a case to analyze the dynamics of policy change in China. Throughout this article, I try to explain two highlights of the process: that the law was passed quickly and overwhelmingly, and that the process included various actors, including international and domestic environmental NGOs, which is very rare in China. Applying two Western theoretical frameworks—punctuated-equilibrium theory and advocacy coalition framework—to analyze this case, I partly explain the process. However, I also find the inapplicability of these frameworks in China's special political context. I argue that some exogenous pressures influenced both dominant core and advocacy groups. With few retarding forces, these strong driving forces made the law pass quickly and overwhelmingly. Generally speaking, the Chinese government is seeking to utilize these NGOs to achieve its own goals. Common interest is a key factor for the involvement of NGOs.

This paper applies a Data Envelope Analysis (DEA) method to the measurements and evaluations of Chinese provincial governmental productivity. It defines operationally the inputs and outputs of the government and governmental productivity in terms of eight indicators, and calculates the changes in governmental productivity with the DEA method for the period of 1985 to 2003. It decomposes the total factor productivity (TFP) into efficient changes and technical changes, and illustrates the characteristics of the changes in governmental productivity from periods to periods, and analyzes theoretically the characteristic patterns. It compares the differences in changes of governmental productivity among the different regions. In the processes of analysis, we emphasize the effects of administrative and economic reforms on governmental productivity, and the relationship between governmental productivity and administrative and economic reforms.