published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

published_or_final_version / Politics and Public Administration / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Chinese Historical Studies / Master / Master of Arts

为什么中国地方人大的发展会存在一定程度的地方差异？本文以市级人大为例，分析了经济现代化与人大发展之间的关系。通过对全国性数据的定量分析，本文发现：首先，一个地方的经济发展水平越高，当地市级人大的立法权、监督权和代表功能的发展水平越高。第二，一个地方的第二、第三产业生产总值所占的比重越高，当地的市级人大越有可能在立法和代表方面发挥重要的作用。 / 本文还利用丰富的定性资料和统计数据分析了其中的因果机制，发现随着经济现代化水平的不断提高，市级人大有更强的动力行使立法权、监督权和发挥代表功能，以应对经济现代化所带来的各种挑战；此外，经济现代化给市级人大的发展带来了更多的财政资源和人力资源，因此也就提升了市级人大的能力。因而经济现代化能够对人大的发展起到促进的作用。 / 可以说，中国市级人大的发展是政治制度调适的一种表现形式，一方面，尽管市级人大已经逐渐摆"橡皮图章"的尴尬地位，但党对人大的领导仍然得到有效的维持；另一方面，人大的发展调整了人大与"一府两院"、人大与民众之间的关系，加强了制度化的横向分权和自下而上的问责：这可以在一定程度上减少官员违法滥权的现象，改善政府的施政绩效，提高政府的回应性，缓和社会矛盾，也就促进了社会的稳定，提高了政权的政绩合法性，因而有助于中共政权更好地适应经济现代化所带来的外部环境的变化。 / 本文的发现表明，一方面，正如许多研究所揭示的，经济现代化的过程可能会造成社会的不稳定，并且给威权政体的生存带来威胁；然而另一方面，经济现代化又会促进威权政体中的政治制度进行调适，从而在一定程度上有利于促进社会的稳定和威权统治的延续。 / 然而，需要指出的是，这种政治制度的调适具有一些难以克服的局限性，随着经济现代化水平的继续提高，政治制度调适的需求可能会进一步增加，但调适的空间可能会逐渐缩小，在这种情况下，威权统治者能否继续通过政治制度的调适来保持威权体制的生命力，则仍然是未知之数。 / Why does regional variation exist in the development of Local People’s Congresses in China? Taking Municipal People’s Congresses (MPC) as cases, this research explores the relationship between economic modernization and the development of People’s Congresses (PC). Based on quantitative analysis on national data, it reveals that, firstly, the higher the level of economic development, the higher the levels of MPCs’ development in legislation, supervision and representation; secondly, the larger the proportion of the gross product of secondary and tertiary industries in GDP, the higher the development levels of MPCs’ legislation and representation. / This research also analyzes abundant qualitative and quantitative data to reveal the causal mechanism and finds that, firstly, as the modernization of economics, MPCs have stronger motivations to promote their legislation, supervision and representation for dealing with the challenges brought by economic modernization; secondly, economic modernization also increases the finanicial and human resources owned by MPCs, which is beneficial to the development of their capacities. Thus economic modernization can make contributions to PCs’ development. / The dissertation argues that the development of Chinese MPC is the Adaptation of Political Institutions. On the one hand, though going away from the image of "rubber stamp", PCs are still under robust leadership of Chinese Communist Party (CCP). On the other hand, PCs’ development adjusts the relationship between PCs and governments, procuratorates or courts, as well as the relationship between PCs and the Public, strengthening institutional horizontal and vertical accountability. To a certain degree, the adaptation of political institutions restrains officials’ illegal behaviors and the abuse of power, improves the performance of governments, strengthens governments’ responsiveness and decreases social contradiction, thus has positive effects on social stability and regime legitimacy, which makes the CCP regime be better adapted to the changing external environment caused by economic modernization. / The main discoveries of this dissertation illustrate that, on the one hand, just as many studies have revealed, the process of economic modernization is possible to cause social instability as well as the collapse of authoritarian regimes; on the other hand, economic modernization also promotes the adaptation of political institutions in authoritarianism, which is beneficial to social stability and regime survival. / Nevertheless, some limitations still inevitably exist in such adaptation of political institutions. As economics continues to be more and more modernized, the demand for politically institutional adaptation may increase, but the remaining space for such adaptation will probably turn narrower and narrower. Under this condition, it is still unknown whether or not authoritarian rulers are able to keep utilizing the adaptation of political institutions to consolidate their regimes. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / 陳川慜. / Parallel title from added title page. / Thesis (Ph.D.) Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2015. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 177-188). / Abstracts also in English. / Chen Chuanmin.

梁麗珠. / 據手稿本影印. / Thesis (M.A.)--香港中文大學硏究院社會學部. / Ju shou gao ben ying yin. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 132-141). / Liang Lizhu. / Thesis (M.A.)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue yan jiu yuan she hui xue bu. / Chapter 一 --- 導論 / Chapter 二 --- 研究理論假設及方法 / Chapter 三 --- 背景資料介紹 / Chapter 四 --- 研究資料分析 / Chapter 五 --- 結論 / Chapter 六 --- 註釋 / Chapter 七 --- 參考書目

This thesis analyzes the development of Chinese local people’s congresses (LPCs) in the reform era (1979 onwards). It explores the dynamics behind this development and the role LPCs play in legal-political reform in China. Changes to LPCs are examined in the following areas: national laws and local regulations concerning the LPC system, organization and operation of the LPCs and their standing committees, elections for deputies at both direct and indirect level, and the activities of deputies, including deputy-voter interactions. Based on empirical findings, this thesis argues that LPC reform involves top-down legal reform of the congressional system, social stratification, the emergence of new social classes, a new awareness of rights, and greater public participation. It concludes that through congress elections, Chinese people are increasingly educated and trained to exert their political rights; meanwhile, through congress operations the Party state is becoming more institutionalized, legalized, and pluralistic. That is the contribution made by LPCs to the rule of law and democracy in China. / published_or_final_version / Law / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Social Sciences

published_or_final_version / Urban Studies / Master / Master of Social Sciences

Of the many themes in the history of China, an important one is the persistence and effectiveness with which the Chinese managed to rule their huge country and keep it unified. Many explanations for this have been given, such as the diffusion of Confucian ideology, and the integrative powers of the civil service examination system. However, there was one phenomenon which influenced the longevity of the Chinese empire which has not received as much attention as it deserves, that is, Chinese theories of different types of local government. To be sure, there have been some studies on this topic. But the studies which have appeared have basically dealt with the institutional aspects of local government. Few, if any, have explored this topic through a case study of the thought of one crucial historical individual. This thesis does not offer a synoptic examination of seventeenth-century local governments, but tries to achieve a better understanding of it through the study of the thought of Ku Yen-wu (1613-1682), a key figure during the transitional period of early modern China. Ku was chosen not only because of the historical significance of his time and his crucial importance during his lifetime, but also because his thought about the problems of local power was the centerpiece of his political theorizing. The thesis begins with an introduction which presents the general setting of seventeenth century China and the historiographical issues which it raises. This is followed by a chapter discussing Ku's family background and the great events in which he was involved during his formative years, and their effects upon him. The next three chapters are concerned with Ku's theoretical assessments of the development of different kinds of local power structures, and the.relevance of such local power structures as he saw it to the dilemmas of China at the time of the Manchu conquest, which Ku Yen-wu hated. In these chapters, I shall examine Ku Yen-wu's views of the ideal and the real roles in the social order of such pivotal figures as the yamen clerks (hsli-li), and the local licentiates (sheng-yuan). More important, I shall attempt to elaborate Ku's basic anxieties about, and his solution to, the problems of the defense of China, which he related to the strengthening of the localities. In other words, the focus of this study is on the interaction between Ku Yen-wu himself and the rapidly changing China of the Manchu conquest. I will argue that many of the proto-bourgeois ideas which have been attributed to Ku were actually Confucian reactions to the corrupted social customs, an increasingly despotic central government, and the foreign conquest of China, rather than the pioneering declarations of the arrival of an era of "sprouting" capitalism which some scholars, both foreign and Chinese, have seen them to have been. The significance of Ku in the history of China is discussed in the last chapter. This thesis attempts to specify some of the specific social features which a great scholar like Ku Yen-wu thought should be associated with a system of strong local power in seventeenth-century China. I hope this study will provide a better insight into the thought of Ku Yen-wu and the society in which he lived. I hope also to suggest briefly how Chinese actions and reactions towards the Western challenge since the middle of the nineteenth century may have owed something to the thought of Ku Yen-wu. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate