The thesis addresses the paradigm shift of education governance in China through a study of the policymaking process of two legislation episodes in China: the 1986 Compulsory Education Law and the 2006 Compulsory Education Law Amendment. The research started with two broad initial research questions: how was the Compulsory Education Law made and amended? Why was the Law made and amended? Using ethnographic interviews and documentary analysis as the main research methods, more specific questions on the 1986 and 2006 legislation were later delved into as the research evolved in depth: What were the driving forces behind the 1986 and 2006 legislation? What values of compulsory education were assumed in the central decisions of the 1986 and 2006 legislation? What was the institutional rationale underpinning the 1986 and 2006 legislation? The data was collected through ethnographic interview with some forty informants involved in the policymaking process. The research findings were analyzed and presented on three levels. First, the findings were presented on the basis of narration analysis. Second, the policymaking process of the legislation was analyzed from three paradigms: agenda-setting, decision-making and organizational behavior. Finally, by examining the results of the previous stages of analysis and further comparing the two cases, the research arrived at a theoretical framework for education governance that embraces three essential elements: political ideology, perceived value of education, and institutional rationale. The analysis of the two legislation episodes identified that the political ideology, which shifted from efficiency-oriented economic well-being to equity-oriented social cohesion, steered the agenda-setting of the compulsory education legislation. The perceived value of education reflects the role that education plays in development, changing from economic value to social value. The institutional rationale essentially determines strategies by which compulsory education materializes, with a variance from governing by goal and mobilization to governing by accountability and regulation. In conclusion, education governance in China witnessed a paradigm shift from “economic instrumentalism” toward “social rationalism” over the twenty-year period from the mid-1980s to 2006. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This thesis examines the ways in which the role of the National People’s Congress (NPC) has evolved within the political system of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), as well as the implications for the formulation and deliberation of educational policy. This research reported herein compared the revision of the PRC’s Compulsory Education Law, which the National People’s Congress’ Standing Committee (NPCSC) adopted in 2006, with the Compulsory Education Law adopted in 1986, with special reference to the education finance issues underlying the country’s compulsory education provisions. Underlying this research is an attempt to identify and understand new governance emerging in China. The findings of a careful study of documents and data obtained from in-depth interviews suggest that the NPC played a qualitatively different role in the 2006 revision of the Compulsory Education Law than in the original. First, in this revision, where necessary, the NPCSC and its working committees provided a legal platform that was used for negotiation, bargaining, and compromise among ministries of the Central People’s Government and local people’s governments. Second, the NPC was used as a way to hold the latter accountable to the former on this particular issue. Third, through the platform provided by the NPCSC and its working committees, the NPC became a key actor in deliberating on, formulating, and monitoring the finance-related policies in the 2006 revision. In the aggregate, as this thesis argues, this constitutes a fundamentally different legal approach to formulating these policies. The emphasis is now placed on legally and mutually binding agreements between the Central and local people’s governments, and hence on the implementability (可操作性) of finance-related policies based on a clear division of responsibility among the parties concerned. This change in legal approach would render a different model of policy implementation and monitoring, with a relative tightening of control by both the State Council (SC) and the NPC over local administrations’ power to organize and administer China’s educational system. Based on the findings presented in Chapters five and six, this research refined a new institutional approach to depicting policy-making in contemporary China. As the Chinese polity becomes more complex, the dynamic relationship between the NPC and the SC must be redefined in light of changes in the distribution of decision-making power between the two. It is argued in this thesis that the NPC’s substantial involvement in the relationship between the Central and local people’s governments not only indicates changes in the dynamics of the institutional relationship among the central legislature and the Central and local people’s governments, but also reflects changes in the modality of governance adopted by the Chinese Communist Party. Finally, this thesis argues that regulation-oriented concept of governance, rather than a general concept of governance initially developed in the West, may offer a better understanding of new governance emerging in China. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy