The Applicability of Governance Theory in China

Abstract

Governance has become the new catchword among both academics and policy makers. Governance theory has become fashionable over the past several decades in Western countries. Governance (good governance) has been treated as a possible road to modern state building in non-Western countries. The rise of governance theory has attracted immediate attention from Chinese researchers, and governance studies in China began almost at the same time as it did in the West. With Chinese institutional reforms in mind, many scholars have introduced governance theory and applied it to the studies of Chinese administration reforms and political institution changes. However, there has been a heated debate over whether governance theory that originates from the Western context can be applied to China, a country with different structural conditions in democracy, rule of law, and civil society. A concern with its applicability to the Chinese context is understandable, yet it cannot be taken as adequate grounds for scientific reasoning. A simple denial of the applicability of governance theory in China based on structural analysis may presuppose that structure (such as power structure, institutional structure, social structure, etc.) is not changeable, and ignore the impacts of social and economic changes on the process of public management and the growth of civil society in contemporary China.