Study On The Influence Of Political Appeal On The Resource-exhausted Cities' Transformation Efficiency In China

There is substantive change about China's official appraisal system since 2003.While focusing on economic growth,it also emphasizes parallel development of environmental pollution control and urban per capita disposable income.Compared with other types of cities,the resource-exhausted cities in China face severe issues in environmental pollution and industrial restructuring during the transition process.In the process of dealing with these issues,the role of local officials,especially local leaders,is particularly important.Their demand for political appeal may partly affect the transformation efficiency of resource-exhausted cities.Based on this,this paper compares the influence factors of transformation for the resourceexhausted cities.The United States,Germany,China and Japan,and then preliminarily deduces the relationship between the officials' appeal and the transformation efficiency of resourceexhausted cities by building a theoretical model.Secondly,this paper analyzes the relationship between the political achievement appeals of the mayor,the secretary of municipal party committee and the transformation efficiency,through the panel data of 37 resource-exhausted cities from 2004 to 2014.The empirical study shows:(1)From the perspective of historical evolution,the transformation efficiency of resource-exhausted cities has shown a volatility overall but has improved in the past two years.(2)Among the influence factors for the transformation efficiency,the number of foreign direct investment,fiscal deficit,and the number of Internet users are not significant,indicating that the opening-up level,the fiscal state of local governments,and infrastructure construction are not the key to promote urban transformation.Whether the official appeal affects the transformation efficiency of the resource-exhausted city depends on whether the official is the secretary of the municipal party committee or the mayor;The secretary of the municipal party committee is much more effective and authoritative than the mayor in the transformation of the city.The conclusions of the study verify the status of China's current power structure and its effectiveness in the transformation of resource-exhausted cities.That is,compared with the head of the Party committee,the mayor of the government is subordinate in the power structure.