REFORM WITH CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS - THE CONTEXT OF CHINESE CIVIL-SERVICE REFORM

What do Western scholars and administrators need to know about China to understand Chinese civil service reform? During the last 15 years of reform, the Chinese government has studied and incorporated many Western ideas, Nearly all their reforms are labeled ''reform, with Chinese characteristics'' Steven Aufrecht and Li Siu Bun identify those Chinese characteristics most necessary to understand Chinese civil service reform. The authors use Suzanne Ogden's model of three basic competing Chinese values-traditional Chinese culture, socialism, and development- as a framework to examine Chinese characteristics. Under traditional Chinese values, they examine Confucianism, civil service exams, and guanxi. Under socialism, they examine the Communist Party, cadres, work units, and equity. Under development they discuss China's size, poverty, and educational level. The authors discuss how each of these factors is likely to affect the implementation of civil service reform. They conclude that the fate of reform will shift as China's leaders' priorities vacillate among these three basic values.