“Steering the Private Sector Economy in Times of Rising Entrepreneurial Power”

This project is part of a broader research endeavor by 10 German China scholars who have applied for the establishment of a DFG Research Unit to study policy implementation in contemporary China through the lens of political steering theory. The project focuses on the implementation of private sector reform and the evolution of state-business relations at the local level. More precisely, it sheds light on the complex relationship between local governments and private entrepreneurs against a background of hard reform pressure from the central government and a rising sense of group-consciousness connecting private entrepreneurs across China. The project ties in with Prof. Schubert’s earlier research on local policy implementation and the development of private entrepreneurship in China, trying to understand the role and autonomy of local governments in China’s policy process and the formation of strategic groups in Chinese society which condition the leeway of local governments in implementing upper level policy demands. The project will be jointly conducted with Prof. Thomas Heberer, University of Duisburg-Essen.

(targeted project duration: October 2017-September 2020)