Applying Insights from China: A Typology for Subnational Comparative Politics

Abstract In this study, we draw on theories of subnational analysis and comparison to introduce a novel framework for better understanding central-local dynamics in China. We argue that careful consideration along the dimensions of interests and information of national and subnational actors can allow us to predict how the central state evaluates local actors, variation in local implementation, and the potential for findings to be generalized to settings beyond China. We apply this 2 $$\times$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mo>×</mml:mo> </mml:math> 2 typology to several policy areas—social stability, social security, environmental governance, and economic development—to derive expectations about the behavior of central and local states, and identify when researchers can (and cannot) treat subnational units as independent observations. By identifying the underlying dynamics of central-local relations in different policy domains, this typology provides researchers with tools to construct a more precise analytical framework and helps scholars of Chinese politics conducting subnational analyses design research agendas better able to contribute to the larger comparative politics literature.