The role of the state in China’s post-disaster reconstruction planning: Implications for resilience

Urban Studies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 525-545 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiang Xu ◽  
Yiwen Shao
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
State Control ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Active Involvement ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Engineering Sciences ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Reconstruction Planning

Rooted in natural and engineering sciences, the concept of resilience has attracted growing attention in social science and public policy. The evolving resilience paradigm assumes the concept is at odds with state control, and instead emphasises the coping capacities of communities and individuals. This assumption might overlook the multifaceted and context-specific nature of resilience. Drawing on an empirical study of state-led reconstruction planning, this article argues that it is the deep and active involvement of the state, rather than its retreat, that helps promote resilience building in China’s earthquake-hit areas. Through a combination of online questionnaire survey and interviews, the article assesses how the Chinese state mobilises and coordinates a wide range of state and non-state actors to enable communities to achieve different aspects of resilience, while also sometimes constraining them from doing so.

scholarly journals Securitisation gaps: Towards ideational understandings of state weakness

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Kevork Oskanian
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Collective Knowledge ◽  
State Action ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
State And Society ◽  
Interpretive Approach ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
The Republic

Abstract This article contributes a securitisation-based, interpretive approach to state weakness. The long-dominant positivist approaches to the phenomenon have been extensively criticised for a wide range of deficiencies. Responding to Lemay-Hébert's suggestion of a ‘Durkheimian’, ideational-interpretive approach as a possible alternative, I base my conceptualisation on Migdal's view of state weakness as emerging from a ‘state-in-society's’ contested ‘strategies of survival’. I argue that several recent developments in Securitisation Theory enable it to capture this contested ‘collective knowledge’ on the state: a move away from state-centrism, the development of a contextualised ‘sociological’ version, linkages made between securitisation and legitimacy, and the acknowledgment of ‘securitisations’ as a contested Bourdieusian field. I introduce the concept of ‘securitisation gaps’ – divergences in the security discourses and practices of state and society – as a concept aimed at capturing this contested role of the state, operationalised along two logics (reactive/substitutive) – depending on whether they emerge from securitisations of the state action or inaction – and three intensities (latent, manifest, and violent), depending on the extent to which they involve challenges to state authority. The approach is briefly illustrated through the changing securitisation gaps in the Republic of Lebanon during the 2019–20 ‘October Uprising’.

Subsidizing Tibet: An Interprovincial Comparison of Western China up to the End of the Hu–Wen Administration

2015 ◽  
Vol 221 ◽  
pp. 73-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew M. Fischer
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
The State ◽  
Local Economy ◽  
Western China ◽  
State Control ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Tibet Autonomous Region ◽  
Recent Phase ◽  
The Tibet Autonomous Region

AbstractThis study estimates the extent of subsidization in the ten provinces of western China from 1990 to 2012 with the aim of highlighting the exceptionality of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) leading up to and following the widespread Tibetan protests that swept through four Chinese provinces in 2008. Although the Tibet development model was criticized by many Chinese economists in the 1980s and 1990s for being highly subsidy-dependent and inefficient, these aspects of dependence and inefficiency were exacerbated even further under the Hu–Wen administration, particularly following the 2008 protests. While subsidies and investment also increased in other western provinces, the exceptionality of the TAR stands out in terms of the levels of subsidization attained, the sheer disassociation of these subsidies from changes in the local productive economy, and the degree to which ownership in the local economy has come to be dominated by external interests. The recent phase of intensive subsidization has thereby exacerbated the dependence of local Tibetan livelihoods on these state strategies, while at the same time intensified the state-led economic integration of the region into the rest of China through externalized patterns of ownership and consolidated state control. Arguments that the resultant inefficiencies and social tensions are owing to a marketization of social relations or to cultural insensitivity and lack of adaptation to local circumstances de-emphasize the central role of the state in shaping the deeply structural character of these transformations.

How State Capacity Helps Autocrats win Elections

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Merete Bech Seeberg
Keyword(s):  
State Capacity ◽  
High Capacity ◽  
Specific Aspect ◽  
The State ◽  
State Control ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
State Apparatus ◽  
The Media ◽  
Election Violence

Abstract Research has highlighted the role of the state in sustaining authoritarian regimes. But how does state capacity support autocrats during elections? The author argues that one specific aspect of state capacity – control over territory through the state apparatus – helps autocrats ensure large majority electoral victories. High-capacity rulers can rely on local agents and institutions to subtly manipulate elections, for instance by controlling the media or inhibiting the work of domestic election monitors throughout the territory while staying clear of costly manipulation such as election violence. In cross-national analyses of authoritarian multiparty elections from 1946 to 2017, the study finds that state territorial control increases the likelihood of large victories. Furthermore, high levels of state control correlate with subtle strategies of manipulation, including media bias and restrictions on domestic monitors – strategies that are also positively associated with large victories. At the same time, state control is negatively associated with election violence.

Planning for Growth and Development

2021 ◽  
pp. 15-53
Author(s):  
K. L. Datta
Keyword(s):  
Economic Reform ◽  
State Intervention ◽  
The State ◽  
Market Mechanism ◽  
State Governments ◽  
State Control ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
The People ◽  
Role Of The State

This chapter spells out the process of Plan formulation in India since Independence, with its turns and twists, to maximize the rate of economic growth, ensure its sustainability, and improve the standard of living of the people. It delineates the change in form and content of planning from state control on economic activities to neo-liberal economic reform measures, which placed reliance on market mechanism. Describing the roles of central and state governments in the formulation of Five Year Plans, it outlines the proactive role of the state in the pre-reform period. It shows how under economic reform, the space of production and trade relinquished by the state was filled by the private sector, and the major responsibility of growth was transferred to it. It summarizes the role of planning in a market economy and indicates certain issues, which make state intervention in markets a justifiable necessity.

scholarly journals State Control Versus Hybrid Land Markets: Planning and Urban Development in Transitional Hanoi, Vietnam

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 2993 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hoang Nguyen ◽  
Jin Duan ◽  
Jin Liu
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Urban Planning ◽  
Urban Development ◽  
Land Development ◽  
State Intervention ◽  
The State ◽  
Land Markets ◽  
State Control ◽  
Role Of The State

During the post-reform period since 1986, land-use systems in Vietnam have been reformed in terms of the regulation of land markets and the built environment. This study analyzes the changing role of urban planning and the policy of state intervention in land markets to manage spatial changes in Vietnamese cities. Theoretical and empirical approaches are used to analyze urban development and planning practices in Hanoi. The study further describes the constraints of planning systems in hybrid land markets that include both formal and informal land development. We argue that in Vietnam, where the role of the state in market construction has not been fully developed and land market institutions are incomplete, urban planning is used as a passive tool of state control and is no longer relevant to the process of spatial development, which is driven by the speculative activities of interest actors. This situation challenges state regulations for the effective management of spatial resources. The empirical results suggest the utility of further reforms to the land-use system and planning institutions in Vietnam, and of strengthening the capacity of the state in land administration.

Foreign Investment Law in the People's Republic of China: Dilemmas of State Control

1995 ◽  
Vol 141 ◽  
pp. 155-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pitman B. Potter
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Foreign Investment ◽  
The State ◽  
People’S Republic Of China ◽  
State Control ◽  
People's Republic Of China ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Investment Law

The legal regime for foreign investment in the People's Republic of China over the past 15 years has reflected a basic tension between encouraging foreign business activities and maintaining state control over them. While China's policies may be viewed as attempts to pursue an independent path towards development, neo-classical and critical perspectives on the role of the state in economic development provide useful contexts within which to view the PRC's efforts at harnessing foreign investment in pursuit of economic growth. This article reviews the structure and performance of foreign investment law and policy in the People's Republic of China in the context of these alternative approaches to the role of the state in economic development.

scholarly journals Economic policy – state versus market controversy

Equilibrium ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kalim Siddiqui
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
The State ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
World War ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
State And Market ◽  
Theoretical Paper

There was a wide ranging debate in the 1950s and 1960s in the developing countries about the role of the state in their economy when these countries attained independence, with developing their economies and eradicating poverty and backwardness being seen as their key priority.  In the post-World War II period, the all-pervasive ‘laissez-faire’ model of development was rejected, because during the pre-war period such policies had failed to resolve the economic crisis. Therefore, Keynesian interventionist economic policies were adopted in most of those countries. This is a theoretical paper, which is based on a review of published papers in the field of economic policies, especially about the debate on the role of the state and market.  In this study, a wide range of data sources are presented, which includes statistics generated by a number of organisations that are not agencies of a particular government. This is useful since data are compiled by a wide range of organisation such as IMF, World Bank and WTO. Secondary data would help our study to answer the research questions. There seems to be greater potential for examining statistical data produced by various organisations that are relatively independent of the national government.

Economic and Legal Support for Commercialization of Intellectual Property in Russia

2003 ◽  
pp. 66-76
Author(s):  
I. Dezhina ◽  
I. Leonov
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property ◽  
The State ◽  
Commercial Application ◽  
The West ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Legal Context

The article is devoted to the analysis of the changes in economic and legal context for commercial application of intellectual property created under federal budgetary financing. Special attention is given to the role of the state and to comparison of key elements of mechanisms for commercial application of intellectual property that are currently under implementation in Russia and in the West. A number of practical suggestions are presented aimed at improving government stimuli to commercialization of intellectual property created at budgetary expense.

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