
Rethinking Political Meritocracy
An Attention-Based Approach
Xiao Ma(Author)
Cambridge University Press
Will be published approx. on 30. June 2026
Book
Hardback
75 pages
978-1-009-50267-2 (ISBN)
Description
Political meritocracy, which selects and promotes officials based on their work performance, is an important explanation for China's rapid development. While prior studies focus on territorial leaders (kuai), less attention is given to functional department leaders (tiao), whose performance is harder to measure, attribute, or compare. This Element introduces an attention-based explanation, arguing that in China's complex bureaucratic system, marked by intricate divisions of labor and information asymmetry, capturing superiors' attention is critical for official's career advancement. Through case studies and analyses of original biographical data on functional department leaders, this Element reveals: 1) Promotion likelihood correlates with officials' ability to gain superiors' attention; 2) Not all attention-seeking behaviors align with governance goals, often fostering bureaucratic issues like formalism and over-implementation. This attention-based framework tries to reconcile debates on competence versus connections in Chinese political selection and explains both the bureaucratic system's successes and its governance challenges.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises
ISBN-13
978-1-009-50267-2 (9781009502672)
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Other editions
Additional editions

Book
approx. 06/2026
Cambridge University Press
€22.50
Not yet published
Person
Content
1. Introduction; 2. Political meritocracy and an attention-based alternative approach; 3. Attention and promotion; 4. Attention and bureaucratic pathologies; 5. Conclusion and discussion; Acknowledgement; References.