Modern heritage conservation in China : an implementation gap perspective

Abstract

Empirical data collected through this research have discovered the presence of a paradoxical phenomenon in regard to bureaucratic control in China. The expectation of high-ranking officials that a greater degree of administrative pressure applied by them will result in a higher level of compliance by their subordinates is not corroborated by research findings. My research on the implementation problems of Modern Heritage conservation in Guangzhou and Shanghai has generated abundant materials that show that, when supervising agencies exert a greater degree of administrative pressure on their subordinates, lower-ranked bureaucrats invariably resort to a repertoire of obfuscation tactics to cope with and resist that pressure, producing a control paradox. This paradox in bureaucratic behavior, borne out of China’s fragmented governance structure and supervisory bodies’ penchant to promulgate unfunded mandates, has become a salient phenomenon in policy implementation on mainland China.

International heritage experts have identified Modern Heritage as a particularly vulnerable type of heritage assets. In China, as a result of the demolish-and-start-from-scratch urban redevelopment approach adopted by local governments since the 1990s, a large number of non-designated Modern Heritage structures in old urban quarters have been disappearing at an alarm rate. The implementation of national-level Modern Heritage conservation policies at the urban scale had largely been ineffective. Consequently, while we have witnessed a proliferation of categories of built heritage items in China, the actual outcomes of conservation measures have been highly limited as to their impacts.

Despite glaring implementation failures detected in China’s Modern Heritage conservation system, only a limited number of research has been conducted on the problems of institutional design and policy delivery issues in this policy sector. This study has enriched the western-based implementation gap framework by incorporating the concepts of fragmented authoritarianism and unfunded mandates, which are China-specific features, as explanatory variables. The enriched implementation gap framework is used in this study to inform the research, which examines the question of the extent to which, and how, national-level initiatives aimed at conserving Modern Heritage assets have been operationalized and implemented in Guangzhou and Shanghai.

Fiscal reforms and administrative decentralization have resulted in the emergence of a large number of independent fiscal regimes that are scattered throughout China’s fragmented bureaucratic space. These independent fiscal regimes are primarily concerned about maintaining local budget health and they give priority to local economic development agendas. Sub-national governments have passively resisted the full implementation of unfunded mandates issued by national authorities because such edicts come into conflict with local priorities. To rid the confusions caused by an increasingly expansive and convoluted conservation framework, China’s national and sub-national built heritage conservation frameworks have to be simplified. To tackle the root causes of the control paradox, China needs to institute a fairer sharing of fiscal responsibilities between the central and local authorities.