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| 2. |
- Almén, Oscar, 1970-
(författare)
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Difang renda, liyi jituan yu fazhi de fazhan (Local people's congresses. interests groups and the development of rule of law)
- 2008
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Ingår i: Zhongguo minzhu de zhidu jiegou (Systemand structure of China's democracy). - Shanghai : Shanghai renmin chubanshe. - 9787208080942 ; , s. 22-33
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Bokkapitel (populärvet., debatt m.m.)abstract
- In this article I discuss how China’s local legislatures, the local people’s congresses, can facilitate the development of rule of law in China. Rule by law and rule of law are perceived here as being a difference in degree, where rule of law increases as more organized groups in society can use the law to pursue their interest. The difference between China’s legislatures and legislatures in liberal democracies can be found not so much in the power functions and voting behavior of the legislators, as in the extent to which legislators are collectively organized and represent organized interest. While legislative reform can improve governance and the efficiency of the legislative system, it is when the legislature is used an instrument for different interests in society that it becomes a strengthener of the rule of law.
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| 3. |
- Almén, Oscar, 1970-, et al.
(författare)
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Kina idag
- 2008
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Bok (populärvet., debatt m.m.)
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| 4. |
- Almén, Oscar, 1970-
(författare)
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Kinas folkkongresser - inte enbart "gummistämplar"
- 2008
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Ingår i: Kina-rapport. - Göteborg : Svensk-kinesiska föreningen. - 0345-5807. ; :1, s. 27-31
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Tidskriftsartikel (populärvet., debatt m.m.)abstract
- Varje år i mars håller Kinas parlament, Nationella folkkongressen, sitt möte. Liknande möten hålls också bland folkkongresser på lägre nivåer. Folkkongresserna har kallats gummistämplar, eftersom de bara ansetts godkänna kommunistpartiets beslut. Men en viss förändring av deras roll har trots allt skett efterhand.
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Almén, Oscar, 1970-
(författare)
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Local Elections in China
- 2003
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Ingår i: Politologiske Studier. - Köpenhamn : Institut for Statskundskab. - 1398-523X. ; 6:2, s. 45-56
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)
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| 7. |
- Almén, Oscar, 1970-
(författare)
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Local participatory innovations and experts as political entrepreneurs: : The case of China’s democracy consultants
- 2016
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Ingår i: Democratization. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1351-0347 .- 1743-890X. ; 23:3, s. 478-497
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study is concerned with understanding the dynamic behind participatory innovations in China. The case of China provides a contrast to the literature on participatory innovations in democracies. While participatory innovations in democratic countries are seen as a way to deepen and improve democracy, in China these innovations are to some extent developed in order to provide an alternative to electoral democracy. In this article I introduce the concept democracy consultant to describe expert political entrepreneurs involved in the development of participatory innovations. Research on local participatory innovation in China is abundant but the role that experts play in this process has previously not been analysed. Based on in-depth interviews with democracy consultants and local officials, the study finds that democracy consultants frequently act as bridges between central and local levels of government by providing expertise, information, legitimacy, and connections. This is especially true in localities where local leaders want to gain the attention of the central level but lack the required expertise and connections.
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| 8. |
- Almén, Oscar, 1970-
(författare)
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Only the Party Manages Cadres : Limits of Local People’s Congress supervisionand reform in China
- 2013
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Ingår i: Journal of Contemporary China. - : Routledge. - 1067-0564 .- 1469-9400. ; 22:80, s. 237-254
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article joins the debate on the increasingly consultative nature of Chinese politics by adding the role of the Local People's Congress (LPC). In contrast to previous research on LPCs that emphasizes their increasing importance and improved capacity, this article shows that the central Party leadership, in order to uphold its monopoly of the cadre management system, has reduced LPC standing committees' (LPCSC) influence over cadres. The article analyses the consequences of the People's Congress Standing Committee Supervision Law passed in 2006 and the policy of appointing the first Party secretary as LPCSC chairperson. A case study of the changes over a ten-year period (1998–2009) in a county People's Congress (PC) in Zhejiang illustrates how the change in leadership and the implementation of the Supervision Law effectively stopped previously initiated reforms to strengthen the LPC and crippled the LPCSCs' capacity to supervise government cadres. The article concludes that the policies adopted in order to strengthen Party control over LPCSCs have resulted in a decrease of horizontal accountability and confirm the image of an emerging consultative authoritarian political system.
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| 9. |
- Almén, Oscar, 1970-
(författare)
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Participatory Innovations Under Authoritarianism : Accountability and Responsiveness in Hangzhou’s Social Assessment of Government Performance
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of Contemporary China. - : Taylor & Francis Group. - 1067-0564 .- 1469-9400. ; 27:110, s. 165-179
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article examines the role of participatory governance innovations in China. The purpose is twofold. First, it seeks to explore the logic and dynamics behind participatory innovations in China. Second, it examines in what way a participatory innovation in Hangzhou can lead to increased accountability and responsiveness of the local government. Participatory innovations in China are used as a way to improve the Party-state’s governing capability and thereby strengthen the legitimacy and power of the Communist Party. Despite some limitations related to the evaluation of politically powerful Party and government departments, social assessment of government performance in Hangzhou serves as an input channel from society that put pressure on many government departments. The study finds that by allowing limited and controlled political participation, transparency and accountability to develop, the reform in Hangzhou improves the responsiveness of the political system.
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| 10. |
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| 11. |
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| 12. |
- Almén, Oscar, 1970-, et al.
(författare)
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Social accountability as social movement outcome : Protests in a Chinese city
- 2018
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Ingår i: Social Movement Studies. - : Taylor & Francis. - 1474-2837 .- 1474-2829. ; 17:6, s. 716-735
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Social accountability is a concept that has been used much in development studies and democratic theory to study informal ways for civil society to achieve social change and hold governments accountable. Surprisingly, it has been far less used in social movement scholarship and we argue that social accountability, understood as a combination of answerability, legal claim attainment, and sanction, is a useful way to examine social movement outcomes in China. Social accountability directs the focus of research towards the target of protest and not only whether the protest resulted in policy changes or not. Based on field work in 2013–2015, this article examines four cases of social protests in the Chinese city of Hangzhou. In line with previous research we find that when citizen claims accord with government policies and protesters are well-organized, local authorities tend to accommodate the protesters’ claims. However, answerability and sanction do not always follow the same pattern. Answerability can be relatively high also when legal claims are unsuccessful. This means that cases that are commonly seen as unsuccessful protests because the legal demands were not accommodated may still result in partial social accountability. In addition to the presentation of original empirical findings, the study makes a theoretical contribution by linking the two research fields of social movement and social accountability, which will be of interest to a wider scholarly audience.
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| 13. |
- Burell, Mattias, 1965-, et al.
(författare)
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The role of social protest in environmental governance in Hangzhou
- 2019. - 1
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Ingår i: Greening China's Urban Governance. - Singapore : Springer. - 9789811307393 - 9789811307409 ; , s. 195-215
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This chapter examines the consequences of social protests for environmental governance in China. Environmental protection is a policy area where the party state has allowed civil society to play an increasingly important role. Chinese citizens can take part in state-sanctioned forms of political participation, but one of the most important ways they can influence policy is by protesting. If we are to understand environmental governance in China, we must study the impact of such protests. Students of social movements in China have made great efforts to understand what explains protest success in that country. The authors contend that, in order to understand environmental governance, we must look at all the different outcomes of a social protest. In most cases a protest elicits at least some concessions from the authorities, even when the protesters themselves perceive it as a failure. This study examines urban environmental governance by looking at the varying outcomes of three different waves of environmental protest in Hangzhou. Protests may lead to the development of new institutional tools such as dialogue platforms, or involve external actors like courts or NGOs. Through these mechanisms, citizen protests form a new and important element in China’s fragmented governance system.
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| 14. |
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Greening China’s Urban Governance : – Tackling Environmental and Sustainability Challenges
- 2019. - 1
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Samlingsverk (redaktörskap) (refereegranskat)abstract
- This volume examines how urban stakeholders in China – particularly city governments and social actors – tackle China’s urban environmental crisis. The volume’s case studies speak to important interdisciplinary themes such as new tools and instruments of urban green governance, climate change and urban carbon consumption, green justice, digital governance, public participation, social media, social movements, and popular protest. It lays out a unique theoretical framework for examining and discussing urban green governance. The case studies are based on extensive fieldwork that examines governance failures, challenges, and innovations from across China, including the largest cities. They show that numerous policies, experiments, and reforms have been put in place in China – mostly on a pragmatic basis, but also as a result of both strategic policy design, civil participation, and protest. The book highlights how China’s urban governments bring together diverse programmatic building blocks and instruments, from China and elsewhere. Written by experts and researchers from different disciplines at leading universities in China and the Nordic countries in Europe, this volume will be of interest to researchers and students who are interested in Chinese politics, especially urban politics, governance issues, and social movements. Both students and teachers will find the theoretical perspectives and case studies useful in their coursework.The unique green governance perspective makes this a work that is empirically and theoretically interesting for those working with urban political and environmental studies and urbanization worldwide.
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| 15. |
- Teets, Jessica, et al.
(författare)
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Advocacy under Xi : NPO Strategies to Influence Policy Change
- 2018
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Ingår i: Nonprofit Policy Forum. - : WALTER DE GRUYTER GMBH. - 2154-3348. ; 9:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Under the Hu-Wen administration, scholars analyzed how political opportunity structures (POS) affect the policy influence of NPOs in China, and found that the opportunity structure was relatively more open, especially for NPOs using personal connections. In this article, we focus on changes in the opportunity structure since Xi Jinping came to power after 2012, and find that the more closed political climate has had important consequences for NPO policy advocacy. We identify three strategies that NPOs have used to advocate, such as using the law, media framing, and establishing expert status. While these strategies are not novel, we argue that the weighting has shifted in terms of what leads to success.
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