United States Government Contracting and China’s Shi Ye Dan Wei: Two Shadow Governments – Path Dependency from Opposite Directions, or Mutual Learning?

Abstract

Comparisons between governance systems in China and America have become increasingly popular, but literal “apples-to-apples” comparisons may be less fruitful than comparisons between activities or institutions that bear different names but play similar roles in the two systems. In this context, this article compares the large government but non-civil service workforces that play pervasive roles in the daily work of the U.S. and Chinese governments – as “government contractors” and “Shi Ye Dan Wei” or “public service units”. They similarly helped produce substantial governance successes, but the growth of these systems in conducting functions otherwise performed by government itself has created a host of unanswered challenges for accountability.