Public Administration in the People's Republic of China: An Overview of Values and Practices

Indeed, Public Administration Review, and the field of public administration in general, have consistently striven to maintain a comparative perspective. In recent decades, however, inclusion of the most populous nation on earth in that perspective has been difficult owing to the problem of access to the People's Republic of China and its administrative system. Consequently, in the history of PAR only a single article on China has appeared and that dealt with nineteenth century Imperial Civil Service practices.2 A thorough review of other literature in the public administration field reveals a similar void in the study of modern Chinese public administration. This article is an initial effort at opening the administrative system of the People's Republic of China to comparative analysis. Based on extensive review of translated documents and interviews with mid-level and senior public administrators and scholars in China, the article describes major aspects of public administration in China and compares them to American administrative systems. In addition to suggesting some impressive and fairly unique managerial achievements in China, analysis reveals some remarkable similarities in the administrative states of the United States and the People's Republic of China.