Tiao-kuai

Tiao-kuai

The tiao-kuai (zh-cpl|c=条块|p=tiáo-kuài|l=branch and lump) system, also known as tiáotiáo-kuàikuài (条条块块) to emphasize the plurality, describes the quasi-federal arrangement of administration in the People's Republic of China. The term "tiáo" refers to the vertical lines of authority over various sector reaching down from the ministries of the central government. "Kuài" refers to the horizontal level of authority of the territorial government at the provincial or local level. According to political scientist Kenneth Lieberthal, "The former coordinatesaccording to function ( [for] example, environment); the latter coordinates according to the needs of the locality that it governs." Thus a local environmental protection bureau may have reporting responsibilities to both the central government's State Environmental Protection Administration and to the mayor of the city in which it is located.

Constitutionally, organizations in both the functional and territorial systems of governance are assigned to a system of ranks. Central ministries are at the same rank as provincial governments. Writes Lieberthal, "One key rule of the Chinese system is that units of the same rank cannot issue binding orders to each other. Operationally, this means that no ministry can issue a binding order to a province." This means a province may challenge, overrule, or ignore decisions made by a ministry. This two-dimensional arrangement sometimes creates undesirable conflicts, and there have been calls for tiao-kuai integration (条块结合; tiáo-kuài jiéhé), although this is unlikely to occur due to resistance from the provinces.

Under the Deng Xiaoping reforms, provinces were given substantial economic and political authority. This posed a problem for the central government in that the central government had no independent means of enforcing its authority to prevent local protectionism or enforce standards. Hence in the 1990s, the PRC government began creating parallel central organizations. Most of these organizations deal with economic regulations.

An analogous situation can be seen in federal systems such as the United States where a federal and state agency operate in parallel, but neither has the authority to command the other. Although the power relationships are similar the actual powers exercised can be quite different. For example, there are parallel institutions for police and financial securities regulation in the United States, but not in the PRC.

ee also

* Chinese federalism
* Political divisions of China

External links

* [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/pubs/ACF4CF.PDF "China’s Governing System And Its Impact on Environmental Policy Implementation"] by Kenneth Lieberthal
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/asia_pac/02/china_party_congress/china_ruling_party/how_china_is_ruled/html/provinces.stm BBC News: How China is ruled]
* [http://www.google.com/search?q=tiao%20kuai Google search: tiao kuai]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Devolution — Devolve and Devolved redirect here. For other uses, see Devolution (disambiguation). Devolution is the statutory granting of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to government at a subnational level, such as a regional, local,… …   Wikipedia

  • Federalism in China — An early Republic of China stamp (1912) carried the English name United Provinces of China Chinese federalism refers to political theories which argue that China s central government either does or should devolve large amounts of power to local… …   Wikipedia

  • Province (China) — A province, in the context of China, is a translation of sheng (zh cp|c=省|p=shěng), which is an administrative division. Together with municipalities, autonomous regions, and the special administrative regions, provinces make up the first level… …   Wikipedia

  • Provinces of the People's Republic of China — formally Provincial level divisions Simplified Chinese 省级行政区 Traditional Chinese 省級行政區 …   Wikipedia

  • Administrative divisions of the People's Republic of China — See also: Administrative divisions of the Republic of China This article is part of the series: Administrative divisions of the People s Republic of China Provincial level …   Wikipedia

  • Thai cuisine — Thai seafood curry Kaeng phet pet yang: roast duck in red curry Thai cuisine is the national cuisine of Thailand …   Wikipedia

  • Comparison of Chinese romanization systems — Chinese romanization Mandarin for Standard Chinese     Hanyu Pinyin (ISO standard)     EFEO     Gwoyeu Romatzyh         Spelling conventions     Latinxua Sin Wenz     Mandarin… …   Wikipedia

  • Comparaison des systèmes de romanisation du chinois — Romanisation des langues chinoises Mandarin Hanyu pinyin (汉语拼音) Tongyong pinyin (通用拼音) Gwoyeu Romatzyh (国语罗马字) Latinxua Sinwenz Lessing Othmer Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II Pinyin postal Romanisation de l EFEO Romanisati …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Счётное слово (китайский язык) — Счётное слово (кит. трад. 量詞, упр. 量词, пиньинь: liàngcí, палл.: лянцы)  особое служебное слово в китайском языке, которое произошло от единиц измерения. В лингвистической литературе по синологии счётные слова также могут называться… …   Википедия

  • Classificateurs en chinois — En langue chinoise, les classificateurs (chinois traditionnel : 量詞; chinois simplifié : 量词; pinyin : liàngcí; cantonais (Yale) : leung4 chi4) sont utilisés pour dénombrer ou désigner des objets, des notions abstraites ou le… …   Wikipédia en Français

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”