The People's Congresses and Governance in China: Toward a Network Mode of Governance.

Sun, Ying

The People's Congresses and Governance in China: Toward a Network Mode of Governance. By Ming Xia. London: Routledge, 2008. 320 pp. $135.00 (cloth).

Written by Ming Xia, professor of political science at the City University of New York, this book is a systemic and theoretical study of Chinese People's Congresses at the provincial level.

The book starts its discussion with three research questions: (1) Why and how have the Provincial People's Congresses (PPCs) gained both institutional maturity and expansion of power? (2) Did the PPCs play a developmental and assistant role in China's transition to a market-oriented economy and rule of law reform, and if so, how? (3) Along with the emergence of local legislatures, what type of governance has China evolved into?

Basing his arguments on the observation and analysis of all thirtyone PPCs in China and the reforms they have made in the past quarter century (1978-2003), the author claims that China has evolved from a hierarchy control system into a hybrid mode of governance--the "network governance" characterized by the hegemonic rule of the CPC and "co-opetition" (mohe): cooperation through competition or competition with cooperation among other major power players such as the government, the PCs, and the people's congress/court.

According to the author's explanation in the preface, the book is divided into four parts. The first part (Chapter 1) discusses the increasing significance of PPCs in Chinese politics and collates theories about the relation of legislature and development to distinguish the value of studying Chinese subnational legislatures. This chapter also lays out a basic focus of the book--the network theory for both understanding the evolution of PPCs and for analyzing China's governance.

The second part (Chapters 2-4) focuses on the institution and system changes in the PPCs. Chapter 2 discusses the institutionalization of PPCs by referring to the legislative empowerment, the differentiation of internal organizations, and internal rules development of the PPCs against the backdrop of market reforms. Chapter 3 describes how the PPCs had tactically woven a network inside and outside the people's congress system to nurture a favorable environment for their own institutionalization and power expansion. Chapter 4 deals with the personnel changes within the PPCs and the change in power allocation among political elites. It examines the manipulation in the election of deputies and its impact on the CPC's control over the makeup and leadership of the PPCs.

Following a discussion of the institutional and personnel aspects of the PPCs, the third part (Chapters 5-7) offers a full examination of PPC legislative operation and functional issues. Chapter 5 begins with a discussion of the "fragmented authoritarianism" model for Chinese legislative politics, then moves to the massive legislative activities conducted by PPCs. The most informational part of this chapter, I found, is the introduction to the lawmaking process of Chinese PPCs. Step by step, it describes how the Chinese PPCs begin the legislation procedure with legislative planning and legislative forecasting, and then embark on drafting bills, soliciting comments and suggestions from the government and society, and finally deliberating and approving legislation.

Chapter 6 is an innovative exploration of the role of PPCs in creating markets, regulating market game players, assisting macroregulation, maintaining public goods, diminishing externality, protecting property rights, and supervising the executive and judicial branches. Inspection of law enforcement by PPCs is also discussed. Chapter 7 focuses on the political contestation of PPCs and other power players. Using governor selection and cadre impeachment as examples, this chapter demonstrates that the PPCs have been more assertive in claiming and wielding their constitutional power and have tactically adopted network strategies such as turning to the National People's Congress for help, attracting public attention for support and protection, and preempting a showdown with the party and government to avoid an open conflict. The author reminds us that such a cautious network strategy, which he calls mohe (cooperation through competition) (p. 246) is not only applicable to the development of PPCs, but is also a fixed governance mode in China with regard to the organization of its political and economic transitions.

The final part (Chapter 8), after summing up the main themes of the book, turns to the near future prospects for China's democratization and the possible role PPCs could play in it. Compared with the local legislatures of Taiwan and Hong Kong, the PPCs are expected to include ordinary people in its network through free elections, thereby contributing to China's democratic transition.

Besides empirical findings and profound theoretical implications of China's PPCs, the author also provides a new perspective for examining the pattern of China's governance through network analysis. These efforts make this book not only a valuable reference for Chinese legislative study, but also a key to understanding ongoing Chinese political transitions. The book also contains a number of useful statistics and tables on PPCs' personnel evolution, legislative activity, and so on. To conclude, this book could be a good guide for English-language readers who want to become acquainted with the provincial legislatures of China.

However, this study, as excellent as it is, is not perfect. When referring to the People's Deputies (DPS), the author simply praises their accomplishments and enthusiasm but does not give us their motive for serving the people. Since free elections have not yet been introduced in China and the percentage of deputies from the "real proletariat" has been shrinking in recent decades, what is it that pushes the deputies to fight for the benefits of ordinary people and clash with powerful party and government interests? Clearly the consciousness of honor mentioned in this book does not provide a good enough answer here.

Ying Sun

Department of Law

University of Hong Kong