The Chinese technocratic leadership, a case study of the municipal leadership of Shanghai in the reform era

grantor: University of TorontoThis dissertation is a case study of the changing composition and characteristics of the Chinese leadership in Shanghai since the mid-1980s. Currently dominated by party technocrats with little revolutionary experience, Shanghai leadership reflects the shift to a market-oriented reform and opening-up and a more pluralistic form of socioeconornic development. The case study suggests that the new political technocratic leadership significantly differs from its Mao-era revolutionary predecessors, and is capable of conducting China's long-awaited reform and modernization. This study addresses two fundamental, interlocking questions: Who are these party technocrats? And what are the distinguishing features of the Chinese technocratic leadership? The existing scholarly literature on the Chinese political elite has established that the new political elite can be clearly distinguished from their revolutionary predecessors in terms of socio-political traits, particularly revolutionary experience and educational attainment. But studies have yet to define the functional characteristics of the new leadership. The importance of this lacuna becomes dear from the recent debate over whether the new Chinese leadership is a technocracy or a political technocracy. This study attempts to investigate the functional as well as socio-political characteristics of the new leadership. It also touches upon a series of important issues such as the legitimacy, authority, and political implications of the Chinese technocratic leadership. Based on primary and secondary sources, this dissertation examines the three main aspects of the political and administrative leadership of Shanghai in the reform era: personnel, institution, and collective conduct. The research focus is on the top echelon of the municipal leadership. The Mao-era leadership is surveyed so as to provide historical background and a basis for comparison. Post-1980 leadership transformations are then probed. The bulk of the dissertation focuses on the characteristics of the new elite, including an inquiry into their general socio-political traits and profiling of the six senior municipal leaders since 1985. In addition, two case studies of municipal leadership performance in the challenging and critical areas--urban planning and reconstruction and housing policy-making--aim to shed further fight on the new leadership's functional characteristics. The dissertation concludes that in a changing communist state, the communist-technocratic leaders, modern, cosmopolitan, and nationalist, are a driving force for institutionalization and rationalization, the principal agents of science and technology, promoting pragmatism, market-oriented reform, and modernization. The new leadership this dissertation argues is better characterized as a political technocracy rather than a technocracy.Ph.D