Teaching Comparative

Local government power in a unitary system

One of the ambiguities we often have to help our students understand is the fact that China's unitary system doesn't often seem to function like a unitary system. Historically, that's the pattern in China. A centralized government within which local authorities undermine national policies to benefit regional interests.

Test questions about the regime in China? The multiple-choice answer is that China's is a unitary system. The answer in a student essay has to be something more complex and nuanced. Here's another example that might help teach about this complexity.

Howard French wrote for the New York Times from Qingtongxia, China.

Far From Beijing’s Reach, Officials Bend Energy Rules

"When the central government in Beijing announced an ambitious nationwide campaign to reduce energy consumption two years ago, officials in this western regional capital got right to work: not to comply, but to engineer creative schemes to evade the requirements.

Hydroelectric dam in Qingtongxia

"The energy campaign required local officials to raise electricity prices as a way of discouraging the growth of large energy-consuming industries and forcing the least efficient of these users out of business. Instead, fearing the impact on the local economy, the regional government brokered a special deal for the Qingtongxia Aluminum Group, which accounts for 20 percent of this region’s industrial consumption and roughly 10 percent of its gross domestic product.

"Local officials arranged for the company to be removed from the national electrical grid and supplied directly by the local company, exempting it from expensive fees, according to an electricity company official who asked not to be named, an official of the aluminum company and the official Web site of the nearby city of Shizuishan. As a result, Qingtongxia continued to get its power at the lowest price available.

"It was a cat-and-mouse game grimly familiar to Chinese officials, who have a long tradition of spearheading ambitious nationwide campaigns that are all too often thwarted at the local level, partly because local priorities clash with national ones...

"The tug of war between localities and the central government also shows the limits of China’s ability to impose change on a vast, unruly country by edict, while exposing the weaknesses of a one-size-fits-all approach to reform in a country where regional economic disparities are rapidly growing..."

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Labels: China, concepts, political culture

posted by Ken Wedding @ 6:05 AM