Effectiveness of local government in China: An analysis of two districts in Baoji city, Shaanxi province

Abstract

Although research on the effectiveness of local government in democratic countries has achieved great process, this topic is still new for most scholars engaged in conducting research on Chinese politics. There is still no satisfactory answer to the question: How effective is the local government after the reform?a??Considering the multi-level nature of Chinese bureaucracy, this study will focus on the effectiveness of local government at the district level. Is the district government effective after reform? What might contribute to the effectiveness of the district government? Are there valuable and feasible policies that can improve the effectiveness of local district government in China? These are the research questions I attempt to explore in this study. Therefore, I choose the two District Governments of Jintai and Weibin in Baoji City of Shaanxi Province to do my case study. My research results show that Weibin District Government was more effective than the Jintai District Government from 1998-2002. Finally, I propose five policy suggestions for improving the effectiveness of the Jintai and Weibin District Governments.