The interplay between politics and administration is always an intriguing case in public administration. This research presents a theoretical discussion of urban governance in Chinese cities and sheds light on how interest groups affect policy making. Comparative analyses will then be drawn between the Chinese cases and the traditional western urban regime/growth coalition theory. Empirical investigations will be conducted to study local development policies in Chinese cities and analyze the factors in the “black box” of local decision making and the main driving forces behind development decisions. By investigating how local governments, business elites, and local communities form a network to jointly make decisions on local development issues it is found that this process can be more complicated in China than in other countries due to the strong party and state. This research helps understand the power structure at the local level in China and enrich the literature on decision making in Chinese cities. This process provides a rich soil to study the intertwined relationship between politics and administration.
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