Frankfurt School – Working Paper Series No. 184 Does Cadre Turnover Help or Hinder China’s Green Rise? Evidence from Shanxi Province by Sarah Eaton and Genia Kostka January 2012 Sonnemannstr. 9 – 11 60314 Frankfurt an Main, Germany Phone: +49 (0) 69 154 008 0 Fax: +49 (0) 69 154 008 728 Internet: www.frankfurt-school.de Does Cadre Turnover Help or Hinder China’s Green Rise? Evidence from Shanxi Province Abstract China’s national leaders see restructuring and diversification away from resource- based, energy intensive industries as central goals in the coming years. This paper ar- gues that the high turnover of leading cadres at the local level may hinder state-led greening growth initiatives. Frequent cadre turnover is intended to keep local Party secretaries and mayors on the move in order to curb localism and promote compliance with central directives. Yet, with average term lengths of between three and four years, local leaders’ short time horizons can have the perverse effect of discouraging them from taking on comprehensive restructuring, a costly, complex and lengthy process. On the basis of extensive fieldwork in Shanxi province during 2010 and 2011, the pa- per highlights the salience of frequent leadership turnover for China’s green growth ambitions. Key words: Local state, China, policy implementation, governance, cadre rotation JEL classification: D78, D73, O18, R58, Q48, Q58 ISSN: 14369753 Contact: Prof. Dr. Genia Kostka Dr. Sarah Eaton Dr. Werner Jackstädt Assistant Professor Post-Doctoral Researcher for Chinese Business Studies University of Oxford China Centre East-West Centre of Business Studies 74 Woodstock Road and Cultural Science Oxford, OX2 6HP Frankfurt School of Finance & Management E-Mail:
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[email protected] Acknowledgements: Fieldwork for this study was partly funded by the Development Leadership Pro- gram ( www.dlp.org ), Werner Jackstädt Foundation and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.