China Policy Series. Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2017. xii, 228 pp. (Tables, figures.) US$160.00, cloth. ISBN 978-1-138-19089-4.
In Chinese Politics as Fragmented Authoritarianism: Earthquakes, Energy and Environment, Copenhagen Business School-based economist and China specialist Kjeld Erik Brødsgaard brings together an impressive list of scholars who present a persuasive case that China’s governance system is built around complex bureaucratic bargaining. This edited volume offers a diverse and clear update on how political fragmentation in China has evolved from past to present, yet remains more relevant than ever.
Building on the important work of Kenneth Lieberthal, Michel Oksenberg, and Andrew Mertha, Brødsgaard and his collaborators (including Mertha) capture the many hurdles facing China’s modern governance system. Setting out to test the resilience of “fragmented authoritarianism” (FA) as a model for understanding how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) consolidates its power within a complex system of interests, the work draws on a range of case studies that leaves the reader with important tools for understanding brokerage politics within an authoritarian context.
This well-researched volume describes how the CCP effectively develops balanced policy in an environment where political preferences may not align with the special interests of policy entrepreneurs. Pluralist bureaucratic systems, business groups, and influential grassroot associations are identified amongst the most influential stakeholders in an increasingly divided political landscape. Still, the authors note that President Xi Jinping has taken an unprecedented central policy position over previous leaders. Mertha and Brødsgaard write, “Structured uncertainty as an institutional feature that guarantees a plurality of behaviours has been replaced by a strongly organized top-down political rule” (5). Indeed, Brødsgaard and his collaborators contend that FA provides an important framework to understand the crafting of modern CCP policy.
The book opens with a helpful introduction by Mertha and Brødsgaard that sets out to define FA while outlining the text’s overall approach and structure. Policy areas discussed in the book are bureaucratic institutions, health care, the environment, as well foreign policy and defence. The authors then identify three core themes: (1) the administrative level of analysis where levels of government and bureaucracy negotiate policy outcomes; (2) the durability and adaptability of authoritarianism because of pervasive bargaining between powerful interests within China; and finally (3) divergent case study assessments concerning the normative impact of FA on creating policy space in building effective state-society collaborations.
The book then moves through ten case studies, beginning with a strong assessment of China’s central energy administration. Nis Grünberg traces the “built-in fault lines” of the CCP that drive an internal bargaining process which has empowered large energy-focused state-owned enterprises (SOE). He concludes that FA has enabled complementary pluralization and integration of competing ideas within the bureaucratic structure while providing an “almost system-wide applicability” (32).
Kjeld Erik Brødsgaard finds similar results in his chapter, citing “fragmented integration” as a resilient concept allowing the CCP to negotiate policy preferences with powerful business groups. Indeed, SOEs often provide opportunities for CCP political elites who still hold controlled interest over the expanding business sector. In the following chapter, Jiwei Qian applies FA to China’s tobacco control system, finding bureaucratic non-compliance, challenges over policy implementation, and a general sense of “regulatory capture” that sees the regulator representing the interests of the regulated. FA offers insight into how competing interests are negotiated within a policy paradox that must weigh state profit versus public health.
Two chapters then provide important insights on health sector reform and how FA has encouraged elite deliberation through indirect public participation. Yoel Kornreich identifies this as ‘authoritarian deliberation’ while arguing the approach offers an important participatory policy-making process for the CCP while serving as a legitimacy and informational tool (91). Daniele Brombal furthers the discussion around economically driven interests within fragmented bureaucracies. In tracking China’s evolving health policy, Brombal demonstrates the conflict and demand prominent interest groups within the pharmaceutical industry place on state authorities.
Louise Lyngfeldt, Gorm Hansen, and Christian Sorace then offer case studies on how FA can be applied to understanding disaster management especially within the context of the Wenchuan, or Sichuan Earthquake of 2008. Hansen asks if the development of the Zipingpu hydropower reservoir played a role in triggering the earthquake while assessing the role of technical bargaining between the Central Earthquake Authority and Zipingpu Construction. Meanwhile, Sorace debates the Party’s short-term campaigning over long-term institutionalism. In showing how policy preferences can bring both positive and negative impacts on the community he writes ‘The double-edge sword of the protection of local interests is coercive manipulation” (144).
The final three chapters by Jørgen Delman, Yang Jiang, and You Ji all point to weaknesses in FA theory yet concede that the approach is still valuable for understanding key dynamics within the CCP policy-making process. Delman’s study explores climate change politics at the municipal level, while Jiang and Ji look at the Party’s bargaining efforts towards financial reform, as well as civil-military relations respectively. Indeed, all three case studies capture the pragmatic efficiencies and unnerving obstacles found within the FA framework.
While Brødsgaard and his collaborators offer a convincing argument, the work provides little insight into how international policy makers should respond to the FA phenomenon. While the case studies are excellent, they are highly descriptive and will leave some readers overwhelmed with questions on what it all means for scholarship and policy analysis. This could have been addressed by offering a short concluding chapter that reminds the audience of the work’s wider implications. Finally, although the book was published in 2017, the case studies evolved from a series of workshops held between 2012 and 2014. This gap in production would have been most likely beyond the author’s control; however, it does raise fascinating questions of how FA would be applied today, especially within the context of President Xi’s “China Dream.”
Despite these limitations, Brødsgaard’s study is important and is highly relevant for those looking to grasp public policy formation in China. What’s more, the rich case studies provide invaluable insight into the dramatic rise of new actors including business groups, grassroots organizations, and professional associations. Understanding China’s fragmented authoritarianism is indeed more important than ever.
Robert J. Hanlon
Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, Canada