This dissertation studies a critical facet of Chinese politics, inspections by higher Chinese government to villages. Principally, it looks at how village economic development determines government inspection decisions and how inspections, once conducted, impact village politics. Specifically, I argue that villages perceived as destabilizing to the Chinese regime, villages with higher levels of economic inequality and villages located at the two extremes of economic development, should see more inspections. In addition, I argue that inspections, in return, drive village politics: they increase village leaders' governing efficacy and raise villagers' political awareness. This theory has received strong support from both field work and quantitative empirical tests using the Chinese Household Income Project (2002) dataset.

submitted by Li Jiehui. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 119-126). / Abstract also in Chinese. / Acknowledgements --- p.v / Abstract --- p.vi / Abbreviations --- p.viii / Tables and figures --- p.ix / Chapter Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- The research question --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- The research method --- p.3 / Chapter 1.2.1 --- The legal and political scales --- p.3 / Chapter 1.2.2 --- The adaptation of Page's method in China --- p.5 / Chapter 1.2.3 --- The utilities of the two scales --- p.6 / Chapter 1.3 --- The research plan --- p.8 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- Central-local relations in China: an overview --- p.10 / Chapter 2.1 --- Major reforms in central-local relations --- p.10 / Chapter 2.2 --- Provinces under the economic cycle --- p.13 / Chapter 2.3 --- The case of Guangdong --- p.14 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- Legal assessment I: China --- p.16 / Chapter 3.1 --- The general legal framework --- p.17 / Chapter 3.1.1 --- Omni-competence --- p.17 / Chapter 3.1.2 --- Dual subordination --- p.18 / Chapter 3.1.3 --- The role of the Party --- p.20 / Chapter 3.2 --- Legal documents and opportunities --- p.21 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- National laws --- p.21 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- Administrative regulations --- p.22 / Chapter 3.2.3 --- Government/Party documents --- p.24 / Chapter 3.2.4 --- Local legislation --- p.27 / Chapter 3.3 --- Assessing legal localism --- p.28 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- Legal assessment II: Guangdong --- p.30 / Chapter 4.1 --- Build up a legal framework: 1979-1988 --- p.31 / Chapter 4.2 --- Recession: 1989-1990 --- p.34 / Chapter 4.3 --- Legislation of interests: 1991 -now --- p.34 / Chapter 4.3.1 --- The case of the regulation for property registration --- p.37 / Chapter 4.4 --- Development of other provinces: a comparison --- p.40 / Chapter 4.5 --- Major findings --- p.43 / Chapter Chapter 5 --- Political assessment I: China --- p.44 / Chapter 5.1 --- Page's methodology --- p.44 / Chapter 5.2 --- The conventional approach --- p.45 / Chapter 5.2.1 --- The National People's Congress --- p.46 / Chapter 5.2.2 --- The CCP Politburo --- p.48 / Chapter 5.3 --- The mechanism of maintaining local representation --- p.50 / Chapter 5.3.1 --- Patron-clientelism in Italy --- p.50 / Chapter 5.3.2 --- Reciprocal accountability and particularism in China --- p.51 / Chapter 5.4 --- Assessing political localism --- p.53 / Chapter Chapter 6 --- Political assessment II: Guangdong --- p.55 / Chapter 6.1 --- 1979-1984: harmonious central-Guangdong relations --- p.55 / Chapter 6.1.1 --- Preparation of the special policies --- p.56 / Chapter 6.1.2 --- Contents of the special policies --- p.57 / Chapter 6.1.3 --- Ren Zhongyi' s period --- p.58 / Chapter 6.1.4 --- Central criticism and Guangdong' response --- p.59 / Chapter 6.1.5 --- The first five years of reform --- p.61 / Chapter 6.2 --- 1985-1988: the climax of Guangdong's autonomy --- p.62 / Chapter 6.2.1 --- State Council Document (1985) No46 --- p.62 / Chapter 6.2.2 --- State Council Correspondence (1988) No25 --- p.64 / Chapter 6.3 --- 1989-1997: defending local autonomy --- p.66 / Chapter 6.3.1 --- Economic retrenchment and Guangdong's response --- p.66 / Chapter 6.3.2 --- Introduction of tax-sharing system --- p.68 / Chapter 6.3.3 --- Resisting “northerners´ح --- p.70 / Chapter 6.3.4 --- The coming of outsiders --- p.71 / Chapter 6.4 --- Major findings --- p.72 / Chapter Chapter 7 --- The trend of change --- p.74 / Chapter 7.1 --- The connection between legal and political localism --- p.75 / Chapter 7.1.1 --- Scenario I --- p.75 / Chapter 7.1.2 --- Scenario II --- p.78 / Chapter 7.1.3 --- Scenario III --- p.80 / Chapter 7.1.4 --- Some observation --- p.84 / Chapter 7.2 --- Implications on institutionalization --- p.85 / Chapter 7.2.1 --- Definition of institutionalization --- p.85 / Chapter 7.2.2 --- The lack of institutionalization in China --- p.86 / Chapter 7.2.3 --- Institutionalization and Guangdong --- p.88 / Chapter 7.3 --- Legal localism: a desirable outcome --- p.91 / Chapter 7.3.1 --- Major features of political localism and legal legalism --- p.91 / Chapter 7.3.2 --- Implications on institutionalization --- p.96 / Chapter 7.3.3 --- Desirability of legal localism --- p.98 / Chapter 7.3.4 --- The course towards legal localism --- p.98 / Chapter Chapter 8 --- Conclusion --- p.102 / Chapter 8.1 --- Legal centralism and political localism --- p.102 / Chapter 8.2 --- The lack of institutionalization --- p.103 / Chapter 8.3 --- The prospects: legal localism or dual localism --- p.104 / Chapter 8.4 --- Directions for further studies --- p.106 / Appendices / Chapter I --- A complete list of local legislation of Guangdong --- p.108 / Chapter II --- "Leaders of Guangdong Province, 1949-1998" --- p.118 / References --- p.119

The interim Constitution and the 1996 South African Constitution are products of a compromise between various political parties, mainly those that advocated for a unitary system, for example the African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) were the leading proponents , anti the parties that advocated for a federal constitution, the significant ones being the Inkatha Freedom Party (lFP), the National Party (NP) and the Democratic Party (DP). The interim Constitution and the 1996 South African Constitution contain both unitary and substantial federal characteristics. The study deals with the origins of the federal idea and how the concept federalism is understood and applied internationally, and draws out some key characteristics that are common in federal constitutions so as to measure the interim Constitution and the 1996 South African Constitution against such common characteristics. The conclusion deals with recommendations of how the substantial federal characteristics could be effectively managed through intergovernmental relations / Political Science / M.A. (African Politics)

本文以國家行動為研究目標，意欲探究的是中共政治行動對農民抗議產生的影響以及遭遇農民抗議時中共政治行動的回應。其中，主要探討的是中共中央與地方行動上的差異性。兩者行動上的差異在本文中一方面認定為導致農民抗議產生的外部環境因素（即政治機會），一方面據以探究面對農民抗議時中共中央與地方在回應時所採取的政治行動分別為何。 本文以政治機會結構理論及國家與社會互動理論作為研究理論，並在「中央—地方—農民」三分的分析框架下，提出中央與地方的差異作為研究面向。整理農民抗議的定義、特點、方式、類型及成因時，並討論與之相關的農民權益。在探究行動上的差異對農民抗議的影響以及面對農民抗議時中央與地方的各自行動時，本文從稅費問題及土地徵用來看行動差異對農民抗議的影響，而中央政府的回應行動包括國家重建、事件定調、策略防範以及守住底線。基層政權的回應行動則分別就「官方論調」、「力量對比」、「對上訪時幹部行動的參酌」、「秩序共識下的行動劇碼」，以及「角色扮演」等予以解讀。 / State action is regarded as the research target, intending for the influence on peasant protest by PRC’s action and the response to peasant protest by PRC. Focusing on these two topics, action discrepancy in central-local relations is what I’d like to discuss in this research. For one thing, action discrepancy is seen as the outer environmental factor that brings about the begin of peasant protest. For another, based on action discrepancy,while responding to peasant protest, what the central do and what the local do can be explored. Based on the political opportunity structure theory and the state-society interaction theory, and analyzed on the framework of “central-local–peasant” tripartition, this research presents the discrepancy in central-local relations as main dimension. While definitions, characters, measures, types, and reasons concerning peasant protest are organized, peasant rights and interests are also discussed. The influence on peasant protest by action discrepancy and the actions separately by the central and the local when encountering peasant protest are then explored. This research examines the influence through tax-fee problem and land expropriation, and then concludes that the central actions include state-rebuilding, affair-identifying, strategy-guarding, and deadline-defending, and moreover, interprets the local regime’s actions in such ways like “official-like statement”, “power contrast”, “reference to local cadres’action toward peasant appealings to higher levels(shangfang)”, “act performance on the consensus of order”, and “role play”.

The use of renewable energy as part of the solution for stabilising global warming has been promoted in industrialised countries for the past three decades. In the last ten years, China, a non-democratic and less-developed state, has implemented non-hydro alternative energy sources through top-down, technology-oriented measures and expanded its renewable energy capacity with unprecedented speed and breadth. This phenomenon seems to contradict to the principle of orthodox environmental governance, in which stakeholder participation is deemed as necessary condition for effective policy outcomes. Given that little research has been conducted on environmental politics in an authoritarian context, I first set out to explore the role of the Chinese state in enabling transformation of the renewable energy sector and to understand the ways in which policy elites seek to introduce developmental state and ecological modernisation strategy in the policy area. Second, by adopting principal-agent theory, I explicate how the governance mechanisms have been deployed and how challenges of the expansion of the sector in the governance system with a large territory have being mitigated. Based upon news reports, policy documents, and interviews with 32 provincial officials, business leaders, academic researchers, and NGO practitioners in two subnational governments, I argue that the renewable energy development in China is governed through a hybrid mode of environmental policy model that uses, upon the existing developmental state regime, ecological modernisation as a policy paradigm, which is partially incorporated in the process. Ultimately, I examine in this thesis the possibility of an alternative form of environmental governance in which renewable energy can be diffused in a less-participatory manner, with more direct controls and target-oriented state intervention measures. This thesis challenges the orthodox assumption that the inclusive mode of governance are the only capable form of environmental governance that reaches desired policy outcomes of renewable energy deployment.

In order to explore the changing spatial politics and the changing ideas of "right to the city", I look in particular at how different ideologies have been used in different historical periods in planning the city, as well as the practices that led to spatial change. Using Henri Lefebvre's theory of the "right to the city", I suggest three dimensions in observing the right to the city, namely, the right to settle, the right to be different from the "modem city", and the right to keep the structure of meaning with regards to daily life and local space. By examining historical materials and using field work data, I show how "the right to the city" was ignored by the central and local governments during the planning process. I point out that the state always acts as the main factor that shapes the space of the city. The urban planning process was affected by the change of spatial politics, the politics of heritage, and the production of space from the state. Despite this, residents' daily lives help to shape the structure of meaning between their lives and their local space. Thus, the local residents have been able to find their own space in the city. / Quanzhou is a medium-size ancient city in Fujian, and as with other old cities in China today, its urban space became the arena of negotiation between different local and global social forces and the state. There is also great deal of politics and ambiguity around the concepts of "cultural heritage", and "modernization". / This research studies the changing spatial politics from the traditional to the modem state, and the factors that affect the form of space in Quanzhou's different historical stages. The central questions are: how have spatial politics led to the changes of local culture; in what ways have the local residents had their own right to the city and how have they reacted to the state's spatial politics? / 罗攀. / Adviser: Joseph Prosco. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-04, Section: A, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 216-225). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Luo Pan.

Le Grand Paris est une utopie en 2001, utopie qui va jouer un rôle moteur dans le changement de l’ordre institutionnel francilien de l’aménagement du territoire dans la décennie (2001-2012). Cette idée se manifeste dans trois processus menés conjointement : 1. une politique de coopération entre élus locaux mise en place par la Ville de Paris dès 2001 ; 2. un projet d’aménagement du territoire dès 2004 avec la révision du schéma directeur d’Ile-de-France, et dès 2008 avec un projet gouvernemental d’aménagement ; 3. un projet de réforme institutionnelle de changement d’échelle avec la création d’un gouvernement métropolitain. L’idée Grand Paris se matérialise par la mise en oeuvre d’un gigantesque réseau de transports publics autour de Paris depuis2010 et par une institution métropolitaine en 2014. Ces réalisations trouvent leurs racines dans les luttes institutionnelles et politiques de la décennie 2000.Cette monographie sur le Grand Paris illustre la problématique du changement d’échelle en contexte de forte concurrence entre métropoles mondiales. A travers l’analyse du système d’acteurs publics (en particulier la Ville de Paris, les maires de l’agglomération, le Conseil régional d’Ile-de-France et l’Etat), il s’agit de comprendre quels sont les usages du Grand Paris par ces acteurs,comment se construisent leurs représentations, et quels sont les blocages institutionnels contre la montée en puissance de l’échelon politique métropolitain. On montrera que l’on peut combiner utilement les trois variables d’analyse du changement que sont les intérêts, les idées et les institutions pour comprendre ce que révèle le problème public « Grand Paris » de l’évolution des relations entre l’Etat, la ville de Paris et le Conseil régional d’Ile-de-France. / The Greater Paris in in 2001 an utopia. However this planning vision for Paris has brought major changes to the Ile-de-France governance regarding urban development from 2001 to 2012. Three processes jointly carried out illustrate this idea: 1- Since 2001 the City of Paris has been encouraging cooperation between local elected representatives. 2- The Ile-de-France regional development plan has been reviewed since 2004 and as of 2008 a governmental urban development project has been formulated. 3- A new governance project which includes the creation of a metropolitan government has been discussed. The Greater Paris project has led to a new ambitious public transportation plan for its suburbs (2010) and the creation of a metropolitan government(2014). All of these achievements are the result of institutional and political conflicts from the last decade.This monography on the Greater Paris illustrates the issue of urban change of scale in thecontext of increased competition between cities. It aims at understanding the standpoints of public actors (the City of Paris, local mayors, the Ile-de-France region, the State): how they intend to use the Greater Paris idea, how they build up their representations of it and what are the institutional resistance against a metropolitan government. The analytical frame of this study combines three change variables - interests, ideas and institutions – to better understand how the Greater Paris project has changed the regional governance (2001-2012).

The interim Constitution and the 1996 South African Constitution are products of a compromise between various political parties, mainly those that advocated for a unitary system, for example the African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) were the leading proponents , anti the parties that advocated for a federal constitution, the significant ones being the Inkatha Freedom Party (lFP), the National Party (NP) and the Democratic Party (DP). The interim Constitution and the 1996 South African Constitution contain both unitary and substantial federal characteristics. The study deals with the origins of the federal idea and how the concept federalism is understood and applied internationally, and draws out some key characteristics that are common in federal constitutions so as to measure the interim Constitution and the 1996 South African Constitution against such common characteristics. The conclusion deals with recommendations of how the substantial federal characteristics could be effectively managed through intergovernmental relations / Political Science / M.A. (African Politics)

魏英杰. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 189-196) / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Wei Yingjie.

This dissertation focused on the nature of political control over the bureaucracy with reference to the Northern Province (1994-1998). Bureaucracies are controlled in various ways. Mechanisms aimed at ensuring public accountability towards ministers, national assemblies, the courts or ombudsmen may be instituted. The civil service may become politicised, so that it shares the ideological enthusiasm of the government of the day. Counter-bureaucracies may be formed to create an alternative advisory service and to strengthen the hand of elected politicians. Should the bureaucracy be subjected to political control? The reality of 'government by officials' may function behind the facade of representative and democratic accountability, which is the precise reason why control over bureaucratic power is one of the most urgent problems in modern politics and public administration and why no political/administrative system has found an easy solution to this problem yet. It is against this background that answers can be found to the question of whether the bureaucracy should be subject to political control and how such control should be exercised. Research questions which could herald possible solutions to the problem, were pursued. The study describes, analyses, and evaluates political control over the bureaucracy as an integral part of public adminstration and an essential ingredient of representative democracy. The dissertation also investigated the difference between the variables of the political and the administrative systems state-related structures and institutions and the ideological grounding of state-related concepts that influence the milieu of political control over the bureaucracy. Among others, the study determined the nature of the bureaucracy, provided a picture of how bureaucracies function, and described the factors and institutions that influence the interaction between the political and the administrative systems in terms of political control. / Public Administration / M.P.A. (Public Administration)