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

University Of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison WI

Investigators

Abstract

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.