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Patronage and Performance: Factors in the Political Mobility of Provincial Leaders in Post-Deng China*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 November 2012

Eun Kyong Choi
Eun Kyong Choi*
Affiliation:
Ajou University. Email: echoi@ajou.ac.kr
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Abstract

This paper attempts to estimate the impact of both factional ties and economic performance on the promotion of provincial Party secretaries and governors by analysing a person–year dataset of their career mobility for inclusive years 1989 to 2009. We found that for provincial Party secretaries whose promotion meant rising to a top national position, both factional ties and good economic performance increased their chance for promotion. On the other hand, for provincial governors whose promotion meant rising to a ministry-level position, only economic performance mattered for their promotion. Among provincial Party secretaries, the extent to which performance affected the likelihood of promotion was not different between factional members and non-members. This suggests that even factional members needed to show good performance to enhance the likelihood of their promotion.

Keywords

elite mobilitypatronagefactionperformanceprovincesChina
Type
Articles
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 212 , December 2012 , pp. 965 - 981
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 2012 

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Footnotes

*

I thank Professors Ilan Nam, Woojin Moon and two anonymous reviewers for their comments. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Association for Chinese Studies in Korea. I am also grateful for comments received during the presentation.

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