Parts of China are an advanced industrial society with excellent public transportation, universities, industry, and other modern features; while other parts (geographically and functionally) remain a developing nati...Parts of China are an advanced industrial society with excellent public transportation, universities, industry, and other modern features; while other parts (geographically and functionally) remain a developing nation. For China, to build a stronger and more equitable society requires much work to develop governance at the local level. In pursuit of this goal, China actively seeks to learn lessons from abroad, including from American local government. This article examines the similarities and differences between these two nations and their systems of government toward the end of identifying potential challenges to Chinese efforts to learn from American-style local governance. This is grounded in policy transfer theory, which guides the discussion of how to learn from other jurisdictions--from other jurisdictions within the nation, from other points in time within the nation, and from other nations. Perhaps the ultimate questions are, "Should China continue efforts to learn from external models or focus its energy internally?" and "Does China need a more clearly defined governance model rather than its current approach that simultaneously allows and questions a high degree of decentralization (both within the party and the government)?" This paper seeks to add to that intellectual discourse by applying recent data and a conceptual framework.展开更多
文摘Parts of China are an advanced industrial society with excellent public transportation, universities, industry, and other modern features; while other parts (geographically and functionally) remain a developing nation. For China, to build a stronger and more equitable society requires much work to develop governance at the local level. In pursuit of this goal, China actively seeks to learn lessons from abroad, including from American local government. This article examines the similarities and differences between these two nations and their systems of government toward the end of identifying potential challenges to Chinese efforts to learn from American-style local governance. This is grounded in policy transfer theory, which guides the discussion of how to learn from other jurisdictions--from other jurisdictions within the nation, from other points in time within the nation, and from other nations. Perhaps the ultimate questions are, "Should China continue efforts to learn from external models or focus its energy internally?" and "Does China need a more clearly defined governance model rather than its current approach that simultaneously allows and questions a high degree of decentralization (both within the party and the government)?" This paper seeks to add to that intellectual discourse by applying recent data and a conceptual framework.