Legal and Political Practices in China's Central-Local Dynamics

This article investigates China's central-local dynamics in the process of adjusting regulatory discrepancies among different levels of government from both legal and political perspectives. It finds that in China's central-local interactions, legal practices have been rather limited and only developed lately, and political practices have long been in place to fill the blank left by legal practices and accommodate China's growing rule of law in the contemporary era. Regarding legal practices, this study explores the legislative review interactions between the central and local state organs which have been opaque and experience a leap forward from 2017 with China's advancement of the rule of law. As for political practices, this study focuses on two types of interactions between the central and local governments, top-down campaigns and bottom-up bargaining. Campaigns and bargaining have a long history in China's central-local dynamics and intertwine with China's contemporary legal development in policy-making and implementation processes. Drawing on data collected from China's practical governance, this article attempts to provide a roadmap in the explanation of the patterns of central-local dynamics from a multi-disciplinary angle and contributes to a comprehensive understanding of China's central-local dynamics that smooth central-local tensions and drive China forward along the economic development path as a monolith.