ABSTRACT

Economic reforms and their tendency toward a market economy had a decisive influence on the local bureaucracy and its work and functions. Economic development, not state and ideological control, dominates the activities of local party and administrative institutions. The increasing economic factors of politics can be seen in the reform of administration, in its concentration and greater effectiveness, and in the establishment of legal rules for administration and public service. According to formal regulations, civil service applicants are to be selected according to qualifications and not for political reasons. It would be an exaggeration to say, though, that the regulations for Chinese civil service employees passed in 1993 are comparative to the Pendleton Act, which was the nineteenth-century basis for the American civil service. 1 In the new Chinese regulations, rights and duties, qualifications for employment, examination criteria, measures for promotion and for disciplinary acts, and requirements for advancement, demotion, and dismissal are documented for the first time. 2 The problems of socialist administration, however, are still the same, as can be seen, for example, in the overemphasis on vertical structures or the insignificance of formal communication structures. The administration is still dominated by informal structures such as guanxi, patronage, and networks. This is also true for employment policies. The above-mentioned regulations are in line with the old form of hierarchization; they are meant to settle the status of privileges, not to specify roles and duties. Successful economic reforms first need an improved administration that concentrates on efficiency and rationality, changing structures and procedures of the bureaucracy, and contributing to a change of attitudes of actors in the interest of realizing aims for the whole country. The country needs administrators who are effective managers, not competent bureaucrats. 3