Between Structural Stability and Personnel Fluidity: The Chinese Party-State in Light of Organizational Mobility

The party-state is the foundation of the Soviet model of authoritarianism, with the party apparatus dominating state organizations. We develop a conceptualization of dualism between structural stability and personnel fluidity to make sense of the party-state of China in operation. Focusing on personnel management practice, we examine empirical patterns of personnel flow across the party and government sectors in a large Chinese bureaucracy. Our findings show that the party and the government offices and positions have noticeable interfusion in the bureaucratic setting, with variations across bureaucratic levels and functional areas. We account for these observed patterns in light of the interplay between the logic of political control and incentive provision, mediated by other organizational mechanisms. --- Event Details: https://my.princeton.edu/rsvp?id=1953786