| The dissertation seeks to explain how the attempt to create "a new kind of research institute" that embodied new norms came about given the restrictive institutional and bureaucratic environment for economic research in this late Leninist political system. After addressing questions about who China's young reformers were in the 1980s, and exploring why they came together, the thesis analyzes the process of how shared norms about research and research methodology developed among them. Particular focus is placed on how they attempted to institutionalize new norms for research in the establishment of the System Reform Institute (SRI). Taking an integrated approach that understands the SRI as both a solution to bureaucratic resistance to innovation in ideas and policy, and as the organizational expression of a new institution for research, questions about its creation and function will be addressed with specific reference to the organizational environment for economic research in China. |
