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The Politics of Personnel Redundancy: The Non-leading Cadre System in the Chinese Bureaucracy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 June 2018

Hon S. Chan  and
Jie Gao
Hon S. Chan*
Affiliation:
City University of Hong Kong.
Jie Gao
Affiliation:
National University of Singapore.
*
Email: sahschan@cityu.edu.hk (corresponding author).
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Abstract

This study provides an overview of the origin, importance and strength of the non-leading cadre system and argues that the system plays a key role in building resilience in China's bureaucracy. The non-leading cadre system is administratively and politically important because it makes the party-state bureaucracy more adaptable and fosters cohesion among the elite cadre workforce. Although the system may appear to have institutionalized redundancy, this study argues that this redundancy has the benefit of making movement between leading and non-leading cadre status possible. In other words, the non-leading cadre system provides the various levels of the party-state bureaucracy with the leverage to develop their own measures for resolving their own problems. Putting aside the deficiencies in implementation, the non-leading cadre system is likely to remain durable and will help to develop an agile and resilient personnel management system, at least in the short to medium term.

摘要

通过考察非领导干部制度的起源、重要性及其优点，本文认为非领导干部制度在增强中国官僚制的弹性上发挥了不可或缺的作用。非领导干部制度无论是在政治层面还是行政层面都十分重要，因为它使中国庞大的官僚体制更具适应力，并增强了精英干部队伍的凝聚力。尽管非领导干部制度从设计上看貌似冗余，我们认为恰恰是这种冗余使领导干部和非领导干部的身份能够灵活转化。换言之，非领导干部体制为各个层次的官僚提供了一个以小搏大的工具，使他们能够发展出解决自身问题的切实方案。尽管这套体制在执行中不无问题，非领导干部制度会继续存在下去，并至少在短期内有助于建立一个更有效率和更具弹性的干部人事管理体制。

Keywords

non-leading cadresestablishmentnomenklaturacadre evaluationcadre mobilityresilient authoritarianism非领导干部编制职务名称表干部考核干部流动性韧性威权

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 235 , September 2018 , pp. 622 - 643
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Copyright
Copyright © SOAS University of London 2018 

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