Understanding China`s Administrative Adaptation: The Role of Weak Organizations

Abstract

This paper pro vides an alternative perspective on the post-1978 incremental adaptation of the Chinese administrative state. Unlike other studies that focus on the centralized reforms of the rationalized state or fragmentation and competition within the state, this paper analyzes the neglected strategies of self-empowerment adopted by weak administrative organizations and the subsequent impacts on administrative adaptation from an institutional-organizational perspective. Our case study on the organizational dynamics of ageing management suggests that weak or ganizations, us peripheral insiders of the regime, are aware of their weakness und are skillful in utilizing mixed strategies, in a risk-averse way, to take advantage of the opportunities and resources emerging from the increasingly plural and diverse institutional environment. Most notably, these organizations partially assume and partially offset the role of the potentially disobedient external organization. Overall, their behavior creates and enlarges the pores through which modern administrative values and practices penetrate the transitional Chinese administrative state.