Development, issues and challenges: Public administration education and training in China

This chapter describes that the rehabilitation and development of Public Administration education and training in socialist China has occurred as a result of direct state patronage. A critical issue is what the study of Public Administration has delivered or can deliver. Public Administration discipline has re-emerged to meet the challenges presented by China's reform and awesome administrative problems, its responses have been generally disappointing, and it now risks being pushed aside as irrelevant. The chapter suggests that China has already created a comprehensive institutional framework for educating and training public officials. The most noticeable institutional development during the past two decades in China is the rapid expansion of administrative colleges and cadre training colleges, and the re-orientation of the party schools. One of the most noteworthy features of cadre training in China is the high level of bureaucratisation of training activities.