Administrative Reforms in Germany and China in Comparison [1]: Innovations of Local Administration in China and Germany in Comparison (2005–2007)

Joint project by Prof. Dr. Thomas Heberer, Prof. Dr. Dieter Grunow (University of Duisburg-Essen), and Prof. Dr. Yu Keping (China Center of Comparative Economics and Politics, Beijing), funded by the Franz Haniel Foundation.

This project focused on local administration and encompassed a comparison of administrative reforms both in China and Germany. Two case studies were conducted in each country: one in an urban area and one in a rural township.

We exam­ined the admin­is­tra­tive sys­tem under the fol­low­ing para­me­ters:

• par­tic­i­pa­tion;
• trans­parency;
• rela­tion­ship to cus­tomers (cit­i­zens);
• mon­i­tor­ing, and
• efficiency.

Our research comprised issues such as e-government, combating corruption, and electing officials.

Furthermore, our project addressed the following issues:

• opportunity and degree of citizen participation;
• the relationship between administrational development and closeness towards enterprises;
• the relationship between administrational development and closeness towards citizens.

Research in Germany was conducted by two Chinese scholars (in cooperation with the partners in Duisburg) in June 2005. The German partners (Prof. Dr. Thomas Heberer and Prof. Dr. Dieter Grunow) in turn conducted research in China in February and March 2006. After having examined various aspects of China’s government reforms in Wenzhou („efficiency revolution“), Hunan (women’s participation in rural areas), Hebei’s Qian’an city (cooperative medical service for rural areas), and Beijing’s Lugu neighbourhood community (restructuring a street office into a service-oriented community and fostering voluntary work by citizens) and comparing it to the experiences of Germany’s administrative reforms in the last decade we argue that Germany’s administrative reforms may provide four crucial areas of experience China might take into consideration in conducting its own reforms:

• enhancing citizen participation at the local level out-contracting of public services to private organizations;
• subsidiarity and co-production accountability of administrative procedures the role of Social Sciences in reforming administration and government.

The findings of both sides were extensively analyzed according the those four features. They jad been summed up in a policy paper which will include the issues of implementation, diffusion and a concept of policy learning. The final proposal will be submitted to the Chinese government as reference material.