The Influence Of Leadership Turnover On Public Polices And Economic Development

This paper originates from the observation that the local policies in China are vulnerable to changes and lack of continuity as a whole. Leadership shifts is always accompanied with police changes, which causes modifiable factors in economic development. Out of academic curiosity on the above issues, the author aims to find answers to the following questions:what are the underlying reasons for the new leaders to continue or suspend the existing polices? How the new are polices constructed? To what extend the police changes will influence the local economy? The subject of this study is the Z City in Fujian Province.The general frame is as follows:first, the local leader is presupposed as a reasonable person whose ultimate pursuit is to maximize political advantage in promotion. Then factors related to promotion are found out to explain the continuity or suspense of the local polices. The interviews done during the author’s internship in municipal department of Z city, five-year plan of Z city, government report of Z city and documents on the implementation of the plan for national economic and social development have been used to for qualitative and quantitative analysis. Author’s vision for the future is proposed at the end of the paper.The paper is divided into six chapters. Chapter one is the introduction and literature review, including research background, research significance and key concepts in this study and the research design and methodology which presenting a clear and compact picture of the framework on macro level. Chapter two adopts econometric model for quantitative analysis of the empirical data, with the aim to discover the factors influencing leader promotion in Z City, which are the underlying reasons for policy changes as well. Chapter three is based on the in-depth interviews and makes qualitative analysis of the relationship between leadership shifts with policy changes. Chapter four explores the influences of policy changes on economic development. Chapter five is the conclusion, summarizing the paper and presenting author’s outlook and further hypothesis.Generally speaking, the originality of this paper lies in five aspects.First, previous studies on leadership shifts and economic changes mainly focus on national or provincial level, yet little is known about the municipal level.The author studies the relation between leadership shifts and economic changes on municipal level,making up the weakness of this area.Second,the author chooses a comparatively micro perspective and adopts Z city in Fujian Province as the sample, which belongs to third-tier cities in China. As a median city among first-, second-, and forth-tier cities, Z city is very representative, thus having universal implications.Third, the period from2001to2011in Z City witnesses most frequent leadership changes;as a result,it provides ideal analysis point and also guarantees the timeliness of the present study.Fourth, previous researchers ignore the role of leaders in formulating and choosing public policies when analyzing the relationship between local leadership shifts and appointment with economic development. The author introduces the influences of leadership shifts on public policies, making the analysis logically comprehensive.