Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • December 2013
  • Article
  • China Quarterly

Land Politics and Local State Capacities: The Political Economy of Urban Change in China

By: Meg Rithmire
  • Format:Print
ShareBar

Abstract

Despite common national institutions and incentives to remake urban landscapes to anchor growth, generate land-lease revenues, and display a capacious administration, Chinese urban governments exhibit varying levels of control over land. This article uses a paired comparison of Dalian and Harbin in China's Northeast to link differences in local political economies to land politics. Dalian, benefitting from early access to foreign capital, consolidated control over urban territory through the designation of a development zone, which realigned local economic interests and introduced dual pressures for enterprises to restructure and relocate. Harbin, facing capital shortages, distributed urban territory to assuage losers of reform and promote economic growth. The findings suggest that 1) growth strategies, and the territorial politics they produce, are products of the post-Mao urban hierarchy rather than of socialist legacies, and, 2) perhaps surprisingly, local governments exercise the greatest control over urban land in cities that adopted market reforms earliest.

Keywords

China; Land Politics; Urban Planning; Local Government; Northeast China; Property Rights; Urban Development; Property; Government and Politics; China

Citation

Rithmire, Meg. "Land Politics and Local State Capacities: The Political Economy of Urban Change in China." China Quarterly, no. 216 (December 2013): 872–895.
  • Find it at Harvard
  • Read Now

About The Author

Meg Rithmire

Business, Government and the International Economy
→More Publications

More from the Author

    • December 8, 2022
    • ForeignAffairs.com

    The New China Shock: How Beijing’s Party-State Capitalism Is Changing the Global Economy

    By: Margaret M. Pearson, Meg Rithmire and Kellee S. Tsai
    • December 2022
    • Faculty Research

    Snapp: Scaling Under Sanctions in Iran (A) and (B)

    By: Meg Rithmire
    • November 2022
    • Faculty Research

    OneSmart

    By: Nien-he Hsieh, Meg Rithmire and Shu Lin
More from the Author
  • The New China Shock: How Beijing’s Party-State Capitalism Is Changing the Global Economy By: Margaret M. Pearson, Meg Rithmire and Kellee S. Tsai
  • Snapp: Scaling Under Sanctions in Iran (A) and (B) By: Meg Rithmire
  • OneSmart By: Nien-he Hsieh, Meg Rithmire and Shu Lin
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College