ABSTRACT
Central-local relations are a matter of great importance in understanding the Chinese polity because they highlight an intriguing puzzle in public administration, especially in large states— namely, how policies decided at higher tiers of the formal system can possibly be implemented by the multitude of intermediary and local actors across the system. In the case of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), an additional dimension is the contrast between the authoritarian façade of the Chinese regime—which suggests higher propensity of central control—and con-spicuous implementation gaps over many policy arenas. The proliferation of implementation failures casts doubt on the capacity of the Chinese state to respond adequately to domestic governance challenges and meet its expanding international commitments.
