Digital Governance: The Rise of China’s Digital Administrative State

• In Event: Changing Governance Models in China

Abstract

While an increasing number of governments adopt automated decision-making (ADM) in public administration, there remains limited knowledge on how the use of digital technology may restructure state institutions. We attempt to fill this gap by arguing that digitalization could give rise to an enhanced version of the administrative state as surveillance technologies enable standardized administration of street-level bureaucrats, and big data enhances state legibility for centralized decision-making. Based on intensive fieldwork and participatory observation between 2017-2022 in Zhejiang, a Chinese province that has been a leading pioneer in digital governance, we map the use of ADM inside the sub-national government and analyze the creation of new state agencies, including the ‘City Brain’, command centers, and digital cockpit that support automated administration. We demonstrate that as the local state continues to incorporate ADM in public administration, decision-making authority quickly flows from street-level bureaucrats to those with higher-level positions. Such a trend of bureaucratization and centralization of the local state is also supported by a survey of Zhejiang government officials we conducted in 2021. We find street-level bureaucrats demonstrate a significantly stronger sense of alienation from increased use of digital governance than officials at the center. By disaggregating the local state, this analysis reveals an important trend of power redistribution as a result of digital governance tools, and identifies areas where ADM improves governance and where it creates unintended consequences.

Authors

• Xiang Gao, Zhejiang University

• Jessica C. Teets, Middlebury College