Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Minnesota Law Review

Abstract

On March 14–15, 2017, a group of Asian and American scholars working in the areas of law, economics, and political science gathered at the University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law. They debated and discussed decentralization and development at a conference cosponsored by New York University’s Classical Liberal Institute and the University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law’s Centre for Chinese Law. What does decentralization mean? How do we best measure decentralization? Is interjurisdictional competition a race to the bottom or a race to the top? Is decentralization desirable in China or other jurisdictions? This symposium contains papers presented at the conference, in which authors take various approaches to the relationship between decentralization and development: one group of scholars takes a universal and theoretical approach; while the second group of scholars offers original case studies from China, exploring decentralization and its implications on development. It is worthwhile to stress at the beginning that these Chinese case studies challenge and enrich the general theories on decentralization and development—just as Barry Weingast and Yingyi Qian coined the phrase “market-preserving federalism” over two decades ago to capture the institutional practices in China. In so doing, they triggered a long-lasting debate on federalism and development.2 We thank the editors of Minnesota Law Review for their tremendous partnership and professional work in rounding out these symposium pieces for publication.

First Page

1485

Volume

102

Publication Date

2018

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