Institutional Accountability or Individual Agency in China’s Public Administration System

Abstract

How to improve the performance and efficiency of a public administration system has been an eternal challenge and a regular item on the government agenda. In contrast to an institutional check-and-balance mechanism, cadre education and training plays a special role in the Chinese socialist system. Educational work to inculcate desirable contents in cadres’ thoughts has taken up a large part in the Party’s efforts to enhance cadres’ capability since the years of revolutionary struggle. It is a strategy adopted by the Party-state for the sake of making cadres loyal to the CCP in bothpolitical and administrative e aspects. The study reviews the conceptual and theoretical discussion on the term ‘responsibility.’ The practices that the CCP adopted to create cadre responsibility in China are analysed through the perspective of “structure-and-agency.” The paper argues that individual agency goes beyond institutionalaccountability within China’s Public Administration System.