Clientelism by Design: Personnel Politics under Xi Jinping

Since Xi Jinping took power in late 2012, analysts have puzzled over how best to define his political trajectory. Is he consolidating power and building a personality cult around himself, or is he strengthen-ing the Party as an organisation? I tackle this issue by focusing on the transformation of personnel policies under Xi. I highlight an increasing concentration of power in the hands of Party leaders at all echelons. At the institutional level, the Party increasingly controls the management and disciplining of officials. At the level of the individual cadres themselves, promotion processes are increasingly managed behind closed doors and less importance is being given to objective criteria for cadre advancement. The age-based rules which structured the promotion of officials and ensured a high level of personnel turn¬over within the party state are also de-emphasised. I argue that these changes are paving the way for a more clientelist and aging party state

Rejuvenating Communism

Working for the administration remains one of the most coveted career paths for young Chinese. Rejuvenating Communism: Youth Organizations and Elite Renewal in Post-Mao China seeks to understand what motivates young and educated Chinese to commit to a long-term career in the party-state and how this question is central to the Chinese regime’s ability to maintain its cohesion and survive. Jérôme Doyon draws upon extensive fieldwork and statistical analysis in order to illuminate the undogmatic commitment recruitment techniques and other methods the state has taken to develop a diffuse allegiance to the party-state in the post-Mao era. He then analyzes recruitment and political professionalization in the Communist Party’s youth organizations and shows how experiences in the Chinese Communist Youth League transform recruits and feed their political commitment as they are gradually inducted into the world of officials. As the first in-depth study of the Communist Youth League’s role in recruitment, this book challenges the assumption that merit is the main criteria for advancement within the party-state, an argument with deep implications for understanding Chinese politics today

Local governments under pressure: The commodification of stability maintenance

Sources:- Xu Kai and Li Wei’ao, “The stability maintaining machine,” Caijing, 6 June 2011.- Zhong Weijun, “The ‘zero-incident’ logic of local governments in maintaining stability: An analytical framework,” Zhejiang shehui kexue – Zhejiang social sciences, no. 9, September 2011.- Gao Jun, “The trap of maintaining stability and how to avoid it,” Lilun daokan, no. 11, 2011.- Xia Nan, “The alienation of weiwen,” Caijing, 12 October 2011.- Zhang Qianfan, “The origin and disruption of the system for petitioning the higher authorities,” Tansuo yu zhengming – Exploration and free views, 10 May 2012

Yongshun Cai, State and Agents in China: Disciplining Government Officials,

This book by Yongshun Cai, professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, is concerned with the ways in which the Chinese Party-state ensures internal discipline. Presenting the issue in the formal framework of the theory of agency, he stresses the problems of information asymmetry and moral hazard at the heart of the relationship between the state and its agents. As the state is not omniscient, it does not always know what its agents do or will do, and this could lead the l..

Les autorités locales recourent au secteur privé pour le maintien de la stabilité

Depuis la réforme fiscale de 1994 qui limite fortement les revenus des gouvernements locaux et les rend davantage dépendants des autorités centrales, ceux-ci se trouvent dans une situation de tension accrue entre une société demandant plus de politiques sociales que ces gouvernements n’ont les moyens d’en mener à bien et des administrations d’échelons supérieurs focalisées sur le maintien de la stabilité sociale. Le maintien de la stabilité sociale est ainsi progressivement devenu la mission première des gouvernements locaux comme le notent Xia Nan ou encore Xu Kai et Li Wei’ao. Ainsi, ces derniers prennent l’exemple du district de Yun’an dans la province du Guangdong et montrent que, sur 6 700 personnes percevant un salaire des autorités publiques aux différents échelons administratifs que compte ce district, 1 800 participent de près ou de loin aux activités de maintien de la stabilité

Xi Jinping, l’armée, la corruption et le 5e plénum

Du 15 au 18 octobre 2010 s’est tenu à Pékin le cinquième plénum du XVIIe Congrès du Parti communiste chinois (PCC). Celui-ci a été marqué par la nomination longtemps attendue de Xi Jinping en tant que vice-président de la commission militaire centrale (CMC), ce qui place plus que jamais celui-ci dans la position du successeur de Hu Jintao. Ce plénum a en outre abouti à la validation des orientations du prochain plan quinquennal. Dans son numéro de novembre 2010, le magasine hongkongais Chengming se donne pour objectif de nous révéler les coulisses de cette réunion annuelle rassemblant les 202 membres du Comité central et 163 suppléants, ainsi que son bureau politique et son comité permanent..

La professionnalisation des députés ne progresse pas

Le comité permanent de l’Assemblée nationale populaire (ANP) a proposé en août 2010 une réforme du fonctionnement des assemblées populaires à tous les échelons, dans le but d’accroître leur efficacité. Il s’agit du premier amendement de la « loi sur la représentation » (代表法, daibiao fa) de 1992 qui précisait le fonctionnement des assemblées populaires défini par la Constitution de 1982. Les changements les plus marquants sont la clarification de la forme que doit prendre le travail des députés entre les sessions plénières des assemblées ainsi que la définition de critères quant à la qualité des interventions au moment des sessions dans le but de fluidifier le travail législatif. De plus, cette proposition d’amendement offre officiellement la possibilité aux députés de conserver un emploi parallèlement à leur fonction, un point très discuté bien qu’il entérine la situation la plus courante..

Rejuvenating Communism

Working for the administration remains one of the most coveted career paths for young Chinese. Rejuvenating Communism: Youth Organizations and Elite Renewal in Post-Mao China seeks to understand what motivates young and educated Chinese to commit to a long-term career in the party-state and how this question is central to the Chinese regime’s ability to maintain its cohesion and survive. Jérôme Doyon draws upon extensive fieldwork and statistical analysis in order to illuminate the undogmatic commitment recruitment techniques and other methods the state has taken to develop a diffuse allegiance to the party-state in the post-Mao era. He then analyzes recruitment and political professionalization in the Communist Party’s youth organizations and shows how experiences in the Chinese Communist Youth League transform recruits and feed their political commitment as they are gradually inducted into the world of officials. As the first in-depth study of the Communist Youth League’s role in recruitment, this book challenges the assumption that merit is the main criteria for advancement within the party-state, an argument with deep implications for understanding Chinese politics today

Hydrodynamics of the interacting Bose gas in the Quantum Newton Cradle setup

Describing and understanding the motion of quantum gases out of equilibrium is one of the most important modern challenges for theorists. In the groundbreaking Quantum Newton Cradle experiment [Kinoshita, Wenger and Weiss, Nature 440, 900, 2006], quasi-one-dimensional cold atom gases were observed with unprecedented accuracy, providing impetus for many developments on the effects of low dimensionality in out-of-equilibrium physics. But it is only recently that the theory of generalized hydrodynamics has provided the adequate tools for a numerically efficient description. Using it, we give a complete numerical study of the time evolution of an ultracold atomic gas in this setup, in an interacting parameter regime close to that of the original experiment. We evaluate the full evolving phase-space distribution of particles. We simulate oscillations due to the harmonic trap, the collision of clouds without thermalization, and observe a small elongation of the actual oscillation period and cloud deformations due to many-body dephasing. We also analyze the effects of weak anharmonicity. In the experiment, measurements are made after release from the one-dimensional trap. We evaluate the gas density curves after such a release, characterizing the actual time necessary for reaching the asymptotic state where the integrable quasi-particle momentum distribution function emerges.Comment: v1: 7+10 pages, 3+7 figures. v2: references added, pictures with refined discretization. v3: addition of discussion of integrability breaking by trap + small improvement

Local governments under pressure: The commodification of stability maintenance

Sources :Xu Kai et Li Wei’ao, « La machine de maintien de la stabilité », Caijing, 6 juin 2011Zhong Weijun, « La logique ‘ zéro incident’ des gouvernements locaux dans le maintien de la stabilité : un cadre d’analyse », Zhejiang shehui kexue – Zhejiang social sciences, 9 septembre 2011Gao Jun, « Le piège du maintien de la stabilité et le moyen de l’éviter », Lilun daokan – Journal of Socialist theory guide, 11 novembre 2011Xia Nan, « L’aliénation du maintien de la stabilité », Caijing, 12 octobre 2011Zhang Qianfan, «  Origine et dépassement du système de pétition auprès des autorités supérieures », Tansuo yu zhengming – Exploration and free views, 10 mai 201