State Political Identity and Meta-Governance: Comparative Analysis of Governance Modes in Vegetable Retail in Urban China

Abstract

A government’s political identity is a key factor in meta-governance; it powerfully shapes a government’s policy aims and implementation preferences at the most abstract level and forms a stable governance mode. Dissonance between a pre-existing governance mode and the government’s evolved political identity will lead to governance failures and pose political challenges to the government. In the case of vegetable retail in Shanghai, the neoliberal developmental state transformed the hierarchical governance into market governance; but as it evolves into a corporatist welfare state, market imperfections come to be perceived as governance failures, and the government responds by reintroducing hierarchical measures.

Keywords:

• meta-governance
• political identity
• comparative analysis of governance modes
• urban food retail
• archival research and interview
• China

Notes

1. Even in these areas, critics of the new governance literature have pointed out that the desirability of network governance has not been supported by evidence from policy practices (Adger and Jordan 2009; Hysing 2009).

2. Despite its name, Oi’s “local corporatist state” is a variant within the category of “developmental state”. See Blecher and Shue (2001) for a discussion, and a summary of the literature on the developmental state in China.

3. Chinese-language publications include many studies of the reforms implemented in various cities. See, for example, Wang (2008) on Wuhan and Office of Shanghai Chronicles (1996) on Shanghai.

4. Data cited in this section come from various archival sources.

5. For a full discussion, see Zhang and Pan (2013).

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded in the Singapore Management University through a research grant [C242/MSS11S012] from the Singapore Ministry of Education’s Academic Research Fund Tier 1.

Notes on contributors

Qian Forrest Zhang

Qian Forrest Zhang is Associate Professor of Sociology at the School of Social Sciences, Singapore Management University. His research focuses on agrarian political economy, rural development and agro-food sector governance in China.