Party Secretary Research Articles

Officials' Social Networks and Local Indebtedness - A Study Based on Provincial Data

This paper takes the average annual growth of indebtedness of provincial party secretaries and the places where they serve from 2006 to 2017, and aims to investigate whether the social network of officials significantly affects the indebtedness of places. This paper adopts the linear regression method and establishes a unique evaluation system of officials' social networks. It is finally found that officials' social networks have a significant impact on the indebtedness of local governments. At the same time, the provincial officials' tenure, during which the growth of the indebtedness of other provincial governments also significantly affects the indebtedness of that provincial government.

How does the method of farmland transfer affect the “non-grain” of farmland in China?

IntroductionThe phenomenon of “non-grain” of farmland poses a major threat to food security. Currently, there is still debate about the relationship between farmland transfer and the “non-grain” of farmland. Currently, there is no consensus on the relationship between farmland transfer and the non-grain use of farmland. This article focuses on the evolution of farmland transfer methods, examines the impact of farmland transfer methods on the non-grain use of farmland, and highlights the importance of effectively promoting farmland transfer, curbing the non-grain use of farmland, and ensuring food security.MethodsBased on the China Rural Revitalization Survey (CRRS) data, this paper uses probit and ivprobit models to estimate the causal relationship between farmland transfer methods and the “non-grain” of farmland. Grouped regressions are conducted from three dimensions of geographical environment, village governance, and economic development to test the heterogeneity of the impact of farmland transfer methods. Finally, the pathways of action are analyzed from the perspectives of farmers’ identity transformation and contract signing.ResultsThe organized transfer can significantly reduce the degree of “non-grain” of farmland, and its effect is stronger when the village party secretary has a higher level of education and also serves as the village head. This effect is mainly manifested through increasing the probability of farmers becoming new agricultural operators, joining cooperatives, signing formal contracts, and determining the lease term.DiscussionThe policy implications of this study emphasize that to curb the “non-grain” of farmland and ensure food security, it is important not only to increase the rate of farmland transfer but also to promote the organization of farmland transfer transactions. This includes facilitating the transfer of farmland from inefficient smallholders and cultivating new agricultural operators. Simultaneously, leveraging the supervisory and management role of village collectives can encourage farmers to sign more formal written contracts, clarify the purpose of farmland transfer, and supervise and manage the use of farmland during the subsequent contract execution stage. A limitation of this study is that it relies on cross-sectional data and does not observe the time variation of farmland transfer methods for the same farmers or their long-term impact on the “non-grain” of farmland.

Local officials' hometown preference and enterprises' environmental investment behavior

AbstractBased on annual observations of heavily polluting enterprises of A‐share listed companies from 2012 to 2019, this paper analyzes the impact of officials' preference for enterprises' investment in environmental protection in the officials' hometowns. It is found that when the Secretary of the municipal Party Committee takes office in his or her hometown, environmental protection investment by enterprises is higher, indicating that the preference of the municipal Party Secretary for their hometown has a positive promoting effect on enterprises' environmental governance behavior. At the same time, officials' hometown preferences promote environmental investment by strengthening environmental supervision. It is further found that the longer the municipal Party Secretary works in his or her hometown, the higher his or her education level, and the older he or she is, the greater the impact of his or her hometown preference on enterprises' environmental protection investment. Compared with female Party Secretaries, male Party Secretaries have more significant influence on corporate behavior. At the same time, corporate characteristics such as enterprise scale and regional characteristics such as economic development have a certain regulatory effect on this promoting effect.

Navigating green futures: the role of the political-firm bridge in corporate green innovation

ABSTRACT We examine the effect of the political-firm bridge on corporate green innovation. Exploiting the 2015 Chinese reform that requires the Committee Party Secretary to concurrently serve as the Chairman of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) as a quasi-natural experiment, we employ a staggered difference-in-differences (DID) methodology. Drawing on data from 399 A-share listed SOEs from 2010 to 2019, the empirical investigation demonstrates that a stronger political-firm bridge improves corporate green innovation. We further leverage propensity score matching and placebo tests to strengthen identification. Moreover, environmental regulation and political promotion are two plausible mechanisms underlying our results. Collectively, we shed light on the interplay between the government and business in fostering sustainable growth.

Literary-social Interpretations of the ‘Stagnation’ Period in 20th Century Uzbek Literature

The period from the 1960s to the 1980s under Brezhnev is stamped in history, both Soviet and Uzbek, as “stagnation.” Particularly for Uzbekistan, this period is known for such stigmatized events as the “cotton” or “Uzbek” scandal – the investigation into Uzbek First Party Secretary Sharaf Rashidov (1917-1983) for misrepresenting cotton harvest results during his twenty-four-year tenure – and the Afghan war (1979-1989). The experience of striving to save the nation from the aggressive system and stereotypes of society, from the "values" of slavery and subordination, is reflected in some examples of 20th-century Uzbek literature. The most prominent figures in XX Century’s Uzbek literary history, Said Ahmad (1920-2007) in his novel Silence (Jimjitlik, 1988) and O‘tkir Hoshimov (1941-2013) in Lives Passed in Dream (Tushda kechgan umrlar, 1992) fell apart from the literature written as the Soviet Union describes the events of this period through a prism of moral monikers. Their understanding of their place in the world has always been through their connection to the nation. Social anxiety for them is inextricably linked to artistic anxiety and vice versa. Writers took it upon themselves to unmask the sins associated with this period, such as “two-facedness” (qiyofasizlik), bribery, fraud, cruelty, and bloodthirstiness (in reference to the Afghan war). The novels focusing on the “stagnation” period played an important role in transforming these moral criticisms of Soviet rule into criticisms of Soviet rule as colonial exploitation and serve as an attempt to unmask the horrors and misdeeds behind Soviet officialdom that have long gone unnoticed. In this paper, I will examine some of those moral constructions and how they framed the period in the minds of post-Soviet Uzbeks. The literary interpretations of the problems in stagnation will be analyzed in the historical, cultural, political and literary context. I hope this paper contributes to the research carried out on Central Asian studies, including Uzbek Literature Literary history, which is known very little worldwide.

Limited Power-Sharing in a Personalized Regime: Xi Jinping’s Strategic Retreat from Local Politics

ABSTRACT In an authoritarian regime, the ruler faces a fundamental dilemma whereby the concentration of power increases the likelihood of subordinates distrusting the ruler. This study examines how Xi Jinping in China addresses this dilemma by sharing access-to-power positions with his central subordinates. By analyzing the promotion patterns of provincial officials from 1992 to 2021, this paper identifies Xi’s attempts to personalize provincial leadership by prioritizing his personal connections over conventional promotion criteria when selecting provincial party secretaries and governors. To mitigate the elite’s distrust resulting from this consolidation, Xi granted the Politburo Standing Committee (PSC) members influence over appointments for mid-ranking officials in provinces, such as provincial standing committee members. However, this power-sharing mechanism is limited as Xi Jinping grants these privileges exclusively to PSC members who have close ties with him, leaving those without such connections unable to cultivate patronage networks within provinces.

Performance implications of a corporate political strategy in Chinese firms: State versus market logics in different institutional settings

This study investigated the performance implications of private firms appointing their CEOs to serve as the firms' Communist Party Secretaries in China. Integrating insights from the corporate political strategy literature and institutional theory, this study used a panel dataset of Chinese privately controlled and listed firms covering 2008 through 2019 to investigate CEO/Communist Party Secretary duality as a special political strategy. The effect on firm performance was shown to vary depending on the institutional environment in which a firm operated. CEO/Communist Party Secretary duality enhanced firm performance for firms in less developed regions, where state logic was more influential. But it hampered firm performance in better developed regions, where market logic was more influential. Furthermore, indicators of firms’ inclination to state logic versus market logic were found to influence the effectiveness of CEO/Communist Party Secretary duality on firm performance.

The birthplace cultural tightness of provincial party secretaries and innovation in their jurisdictions: Empirical evidence from 31 provinces in China

While the Chinese government has played an important role in China’s tremendous progress in innovation, and provincial party secretaries serve as the main body of regional management, less is known about how the key characteristics of these key leaders play a role in promoting innovation development. From the perspective of cultural tightness, we use patent data for 31 Chinese provinces from 2000 to 2019 to explore the impact of cultural tightness of provincial party secretaries’ birthplaces in influencing innovation in their jurisdictions. Drawing on upper echelons theory and imprinting theory, we find that party secretaries born in provinces with higher cultural tightness promote innovation more in their jurisdictions, but this effect is prominent only for incremental innovation, not for radical innovation. The potential underlying mechanism is that party secretaries with high birthplace cultural tightness (BCT) tend to invest more in infrastructure construction and thus enhance incremental innovation. In addition, the positive relationship between BCT of provincial party secretaries and the innovation in their jurisdictions is weaker when the jurisdiction is more market-oriented but becomes stronger as the tenure of the provincial party secretary increases. Theoretical contributions and managerial implications of these findings are discussed. JEL Classification: M0, M2

The sword of damocles: Understanding the carbon abatement effects of top-down environmental management practices -- insights from China's campaign-style governance

Inspection, standing for top-down environmental management practices, also known as campaign-style governance, is used by central governments to lessen local environmental pollution. However, there is no causal evidence for carbon abatement. Employing staggered difference-in-differences (DiD), I find that inspected cities mitigate carbon intensity and carbon emissions by 3.72% and 2.34%, respectively, with economic significance. Conducting a triple difference strategy, I suggest the channels are the local people's congresses and political consultative conferences' proposals, government attention, environmental regulation, industrial structure, and green innovation. Also, the heterogeneous effects suggest that municipal party secretaries assigned to their birthplace, the older the party standing and age, and those with natural sciences majors, are more conducive to the inspection achieving carbon mitigation. An alternative DiD specification shows that the “look-back” inspection achieves sustained carbon reduction. I support the argument that top-down inspection helps achieve resilience to climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Towards "All-round Cadres": Policy Priorities and Issue Diversity of Local Bureaucrats in China, 2005–19

Abstract: How do Chinese local political elites prioritise their attention in the one-party system? This study examines the issue diversity among China's local cadres by analysing the agendas of 707 local Party secretaries during their daily official activities from 2005 to 2019. Findings reveal that political and economic issues significantly dominate the secretaries' attention, overshadowing other niche topics. Yet after the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 2012, there has been an increase in the secretaries' focus on Party affairs while there has been a decline in their focus on economic issues, leading to fragmented attention and disproportionate changes. These findings not only highlight the tension between the broader Party reforms and the actual responses of local officials, but also suggest the CPC's efforts to reshape the bureaucratic system by transforming local cadres into "all-rounders" capable of addressing diverse challenges while maintaining strong political leadership and loyalty.

The role of social relations in supply chain decision‐making: Evidence from China

AbstractThis study examines the extent to which firms in emerging markets build supply chains around social relationships. Most existing studies contend that companies decide who to buy (sell) products from (to) based on cost–benefit trade considerations of product quality, price, and other factors. We argue that companies make supply chain decisions around social relations to reduce possible risks. We empirically test this conjecture by using data from Chinese municipal party secretaries who served in different places from 2006 to 2017, and the primary customers of listed companies. The results show that after an official move from one jurisdiction to work in another, the firms in the latter jurisdiction will see an increase in customers from where the official previously served. Further investigation reveals that companies that are economically strong, face fierce competition, are state‐owned, and are located in areas with low degrees of marketization are more likely to attract customers from the area where the official last served after the new municipal party secretary takes office. Making supply chain decisions based on the social relationships of the secretaries of the municipal party committees does not improve companies' profitability, but doing so will increase the turnover rate of accounts receivable and accounts received in advance.

Can officials with mismatched higher administrative rank promote local economic development?——evidence from the prefecture-level cities in China

ABSTRACT Using the data at the prefecture-level city from 1999 to 2019, we study the impact of officials with mismatched higher administrative rank on regional economic development. The study found that the high-level configuration of officials can significantly promote regional economic development. On average, the concurrent appointment of a provincial standing committee member as the municipal party secretary at the prefecture-level city can increase the GDP of the municipality by 9.1%. The mechanism analysis shows that increased transfer payment from up-level government and increased investment in regional fixed asset are the main reasons for the economic growth. Further analysis reveals that the economic growth effect of high-level configuration of officials is heterogeneous in terms of promotion pressure and the development stage of prefecture-level cities, the higher the promotion pressure of officials and the lower the per capita development level of prefecture-level cities, the greater the role of officials with mismatched higher administrative rank in promoting economic growth.

The role of governmental leadership mobility in stimulating technological innovation diffusion: city mayor and secretary transfer networks in China

ABSTRACT While the study of government leadership mobility has made significant contributions, it has primarily focused on policy innovations, neglecting the pivotal role of technological advancements that have revolutionised government operations and productivity in recent decades. This study describes how leadership mobility functions as a conduit for fostering local technological innovation. Based on data on the mobility of mayors and party secretaries in 282 Chinese cities from 2004 to 2015, we find that the mobility of city officials between municipal governments can facilitate the diffusion of technological innovation. We also find that leadership mobility in a similar institutional background enhances the diffusion of technological innovation, whereas relocating leadership to cities with a more market-oriented orientation facilitates the diffusion of technological innovation. This article expands upon conventional research on innovation diffusion and offers a practical reference for the mobility of government personnel.

Beyond boundaries: new perspectives on Italian communist historiography

In 1989, the Italian Communist Party (PCI) was going through a period of transition. The fall of the Berlin Wall posed an enormous challenge to Marxist beliefs and the communist political project. In this situation, party secretary Achille Occhetto and his close collaborators planned to embark on a new social-democratic path, as a significant part of the elderly leaders and rank-and-file members feared the abandonment of communist ideals. ‘We are a different party … and I continue to believe it,’ a Milanese communist militant shouted while Nanni Moretti was shooting La Cosa (1990), a documentary about the last days of the PCI, crystallising the perceived sense of uniqueness and diversity that pervaded Italian communism despite the complete loss of meaning for the communist movement worldwide.

Does executive turnover affect government transparency? Leadership changes and environmental information disclosure in Chinese cities

Research has underscored the role of executive turnover in organizational processes and outcomes. However, little research has linked turnover events to externally oriented outcomes such as government transparency, and most studies are set in Western countries. Focusing on an authoritarian context, we theorize how new executives are likely to focus on issues that align with expectations from powerful stakeholders and turnover events provide windows of opportunities for organizational changes. Using panel data from 113 Chinese cities, this article explores the impact of executive turnover on government transparency in environmental information. Results show that mayoral and party secretaries’ turnover positively affects government environmental transparency. This effect is contingent on the career stages of the successors and local pollution levels. Our results show divergence in moderating effects across mayoral turnover and party secretary turnover. Implications for research on executive turnover and government transparency in an authoritarian one-party political system are discussed.

Government GDP targets and corporate capacity expansion – Empirical evidence based on A-share listed companies

The phenomenon of Chinese-style capacity expansion is widespread and closely tied to the interventionist behavior of local governments. Using data from A-share listed companies between 2010 and 2021, we find a significant correlation between economic growth targets and corporate capacity expansion. The impact of growth targets on capacity expansion is more pronounced during the National Party Congress, when officials use stricter constraints and when the municipal party secretary is around 55 years old. Officials influence capacity decisions by allocating key resources such as land and finances. We provide valuable insights into Chinese-style capacity expansion, offering reference significance for promoting China's supply-side structural reform.

Loathsome Hui parasites: Islamophobia, ethnic chauvinism, and popular responses to the 2020 Wuhan coronavirus outbreak

ABSTRACT On 31 January 2020 in the midst of the outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China the city’s Party Secretary, Ma Guoqiang admitted in a televised interview to feeling “guilty and remorseful,” about the city government’s failures to contain the virus. In response, netizens on Weibo directed visceral abuse at Ma, an ethnic Hui Muslim, about his faith and loyalty to the party. The attacks came just months after the publication of leaked documents from national party officials calling Islam a “virus” and vowing to stop its “contagion.” Using discourse analysis of posts regarding Ma from January and February 2020, this paper examines how online discussion of Ma exemplifies Islamophobic attitudes of netizens and illuminate the exclusory ethnic politics that unfold in the process of national boundary setting in China. These findings will also illuminate how Muslims become scapegoats for crisis in non-Muslim countries, particularly those under authoritarian governance.

The impact of political competition on low-carbon technology innovation: From the perspective of officials’ personal characteristics

Political competition is reflected in the strategic interaction of regional government's behavioral motivation driven by “official tournament.” Especially since environmental protection was officially included in the official performance appraisal system in 2005, the interactive trend of local governments’ economic development and environmental protection is more obvious. The policy uncertainty caused by this interaction is a major challenge for the government to promote regional sustainable development. Different from previous studies that only focus on the impact of political competition on environmental governance, this paper studies the impact of political competition on the low-carbon technology innovation from the perspective of sustainable development. Combined with the characteristics of Provincial Party Secretaries and Provincial Governors, the influence mechanism of political competition on low-carbon technology innovation is analyzed based on the method of spatial dubin model. Firstly, it finds that political competition has a significant negative impact on low-carbon technology innovation in the region and its adjacent regions, which is mainly caused by the political competition of Provincial Governors, while the political competition of Provincial Party Secretaries has no significant impact on low-carbon technology innovation. Secondly, the results of the mediation effect test show that reducing the intensity of environmental regulation in exchange for economic growth and political promotion opportunities is one of the reasons why the political competition of Provincial Governors inhibits low-carbon technology innovation. Thirdly, the results of the heterogeneity test of official characteristics show that the age of Provincial Governors is less and the tenure is longer, the stronger the inhibiting effect of Provincial Governors’ political competition on low-carbon technology innovation is. These conclusions provide policy suggestions for enterprises to make environmental investment decisions under different political environments.

Leadership vacuum and urban economic development: Evidence from a transition country

This study focuses on the impact of municipal government officials’ vacancies on the economic development of their cities. Using manually collected data on unfilled senior governmental positions measured by the absence of municipal party secretaries in China from 2003 to 2019, we find that these absences limit city economic development. We identify two possible channels through which this happens: government efficiency and economic policy uncertainty. Finally, we show that the impact of these vacancies on city economic development is stronger in cities in which there is greater pressure to promote government officials and in less developed cities. Thus, this study offers new evidence that vacancies in city government undermine that city's economic development, particularly in a country undergoing an economic transition.

Patronage, tournament, and political reward: Evidence from the model county party secretary in China

AbstractThis study focuses on the honor of Model County Party Secretary, a prestigious award bestowed by the Communist Party of China to recognize exceptional county party secretaries. Specifically, we investigate how county party secretaries' patronage networks with senior politicians and their relative economic performance compared to other political contestants can impact their likelihood of winning this honor. We collect demographic and biographic data on a sample of over 2000 county party secretaries from various official documents and online sources. Instrumental variable estimations show that, in line with tournament theory, an increase in county party secretaries' relative economic performance enhances their likelihood of receiving the honor. However, county leaders' patronage networks with senior politicians negatively moderate the estimated impact of economic performance. This finding contradicts the inference drawn from patronage theory but supports the conjecture that senior politicians may exploit patronage networks to politically suppress subordinate leaders and prevent political uncertainty.