Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: Selective Reversal of Public Service Sector Privatization in China

这个项目解决了中国政治经济学中的重要问题：是什么导致了中国公共服务部门和地方的私有化战略的选择性逆转？国家在哪里后退，国家在哪里前进，为什么？对这些问题的理解将增加对中国国内政治的了解。20世纪90年代，中国向私营部门开放了非战略性公共服务。多年来，私营服务在这些部门迅速扩大，但私营服务的覆盖面仍然局限于私营公司能够创收的领域，私营服务的质量也不理想。2000年代，为了纠正这些公共服务民营化带来的普遍问题，中国中央和地方政府对原有的民营化计划进行了一系列政策改革。考察邮政服务、公共交通和工业废水处理这三个部门的政策变化，政府对私营企业的战略方向和力度出现了令人困惑的变化。私有化在一些部门和地方逆转，而在另一些部门和地方深化。这项研究探讨了政府针对类似的市场引发的问题采取不同政策背后的政治和经济原因。通过对中国各类公共服务提供者的原始数据集和统计分析与案例研究相结合的研究设计，该项目旨在扩大对威权国家如何界定和改变其与市场和社会的关系以及国家在这一过程中面临的动机和约束。它推进了三个跨学科奖学金机构。首先，它通过研究威权国家经济政策的政治和制度根源，拓宽了当前关于转型经济的文献。其次，它有助于国家与企业的关系的文献，通过研究国家和企业之间的互动如何在公共服务部门不同，作为一个威权国家的公共服务的主要关注是保持国家的合法性和维护社会秩序。第三个文学主体是中国经济改革的政治。本课题以市町村政府为研究对象，考察政策改革中地方政府官员、国有企业和民营企业之间的互动关系。更广泛的影响：该项目研究非民主国家公共服务的决策过程，特别侧重于邮政服务、公共交通和废水处理。这些服务对普通公民的日常生活产生了重大影响。该项目的广泛影响是双重的。首先，它探讨了当今中国重要社会和环境成果的政策起源。其次，它促进了对中国政府在政策制定中如何权衡政治、经济和社会利益的理解。本项目旨在加深对一个专制国家的政治和经济改革的复杂性的认识。

This project addresses important questions in China's political economy: What accounts for the selective reversal of privatization strategies across public service sectors and localities in China? Where has the state retreated, where has the state advanced, and why? Developing an understanding of these issues will increase knowledge about China's domestic politics.In the 1990s, China opened up its non-strategic public services to private providers. Private services quickly expanded in these sectors over the years, but private coverage remains limited to areas where private firms can generate revenues, and quality of private service is not ideal. In the 2000s, to correct for these common problems caused by private provision of public services, the Chinese national and local governments launched a series of policy reforms to the original privatization plan. Examining policy changes in three sectors - the postal services, public transportation, and industrial wastewater treatment - puzzling variation emerges in the direction and intensity of government strategies toward private firms. Privatization was reversed in some sectors and localities, while deepened in others. The research explores the political and economic reasons behind the government's adoption of different policies targeting similar market-induced problems.Intellectual Merit: With an original dataset on providers of various public services in China and a research design incorporating both statistical analysis and case studies, this project aims to broaden understanding of how an authoritarian state defines and changes its boundaries in relation to the market and society as well as the motivation and constraints the state faces in the process. It advances three bodies of interdisciplinary scholarship. First, it broadens the current literature on transitional economies by studying the political and institutional origins of an authoritarian state's economic policies. Second, it contributes to the literature on state-business relations, by studying how the interaction between the state and businesses differs across public service sectors, as an authoritarian state's primary concern for public services is to maintain state legitimacy and preserve social order. The third body of literature is the politics of economic reform in China. This project digs down to municipal governments and examines the interaction between local government officials, state-owned enterprises, and private firms during policy reforms. Broader Impacts: This project studies the policymaking process for public services in a non-democratic country, focusing in particular on the postal services, public transportation and wastewater treatment. These services exert a significant impact on ordinary citizens' daily lives. The broader impact of this project is two-fold. First, it explores the policy origins of important social and environmental outcomes in present-day China. Second, it advances understanding of how the Chinese government weighs political, economic, and social interests in policymaking. This project strives to deepen knowledge about the intricacies of an authoritarian state's political and economic reforms.