Constructing the Rural Developmental States in China: a comparison study on two villages in China's Targeted Poverty Alleviation program

The developmental-state theory derived from East Asian models has stressed how economic development is built on the collaboration of technocrats within Weberian states and economic elites in an institutionalized way. Often overlooked is the role of local communities in state-led economic projects, which is crucial in rural development in East Asia. To explore the void in this theoretical tradition, this paper uses a comparison work to illustrate how the state uses the mass mobilization campaigns to achieve agricultural development in rural China during the Targeted Poverty Alleviation program. Drawing on in-depth interviews with grassroots bureaucrats, villagers, and entrepreneurs, focus groups, and ethnographic observations, the paper depicts and analyzes the different results of developing agricultural industries in two villages in rural China. Specifically, this paper mainly makes contributions in three aspects. First, this paper demonstrates that the mass mobilization campaign is a significant measure of rural development in the developmental model derived from East Asian states. The use of this noninstitutionalized political tool challenges the traditional studies that presuppose a technocratic governance model in East Asian developmental states. When it comes to the context of contemporary China, such an approach is also seen in state-led economic projects, which emphasize the construction of a tight moral atmosphere in villages to strengthen local coordination. Second, from the perspective of the state-society relation, this paper demonstrates that the embedded approach between local people and bureaucrats is also critical in economic development, while the developmental-state theory asserts that the success of economic development lies in the embedded relation between bureaucrats and economic elites. In the comparison work, I point out the failure case on the embedded approach with the economic elites. Therefore, we need to expand the traditional two-dimensional theory to three dimensions by encompassing the role of local people in economic projects. Third, this paper unpacks the coherent bureaucracy and argues that different social and political contexts will shape diverse landscapes of local politics, placing bureaucrats from different levels to power. Even in the context of a coherent political institution, significant variations in local politics across regions may result in distinct policy implementation in localities.