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theses

This dissertation contains information about how decentralization and spatially delimited zones have been used to govern China’s economic transformation and in what way these experiences challenge traditional debates on states and decentralization. For over three decades, decentralization has been the most significant government restructuring activity worldwide, intended to achieve development and democracy through dissolving power to local levels. However, previous works on decentralization and federalism rely on a central assumption: the fixity of a structure with unchanged boundaries of authority. The chief goal is to create a fixed structure with power and tasks (i.e., federalism) to achieve societal benefits. Not much attention has been paid to the bargaining process that keeps the authority boundaries fluid. Agamben (2011) revealed, in The Kingdom and the Glory, that governance can only exist as the unity of divergence and convergence of power. Based on this concept of a bipolar governance machine, I develop a theoretical framework that explains how intergovernmental negotiation produces different developmental paths at the subnational level. Through a close and fine-grained case comparison of the planning process of three development zones in two regions (Binhai New Area in Tianjin, Guangzhou Development Zone, and Nansha New Area in Guangzhou), I explore two questions: How does intergovernmental negotiation function as a mechanism of governance? How are paths of development differentiated by the forms of collaborative relationships? In this study, I analyze these zones as platforms for intergovernmental contestations, instead of using the conventional approach of seeing zones as examples of successful policy implementation. The theoretical framework that developed from this study can open a new window to examine multiscalar, multilevel competitive and collaborative intergovernmental interactions. This paper contributes to converting the “China story” into richer Chinese stories and also provides examples of instruments and governance structures in Chinese planning today. It also provides wider theoretical and practical relevance to spatially delimited economic zones in other countries and contains questions that challenge the theoretical understanding of the role of planning in international development.

ETD_6579

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references

by Qianqi Kay Shen

doi:10.7282/T30C4XQ0

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.