The Recruitment Process for Grassroots Cadres in a Chinese County: The CCP Organization Department and Its Alarm Function

Through field research conducted within the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) County S Organization Department, this article finds that, under the CCP’s 2012 Eighteenth Party Congress policies of strengthening local governance and “whoever recommends a cadre is responsible for their performance,” the powers of the county organization departments have been enhanced. The main task of an organization department is the selection of cadres for postings. The County S Organization Department can put forward candidates for posts and also exercises an alarm function for the county party committee, although the party committee still has the final say in cadre appointments. The County S Organization Department has also enhanced its management of cadres’ personnel files to provide accurate reference material for use in cadre selection. The strengthening of the powers of the organization departments may provide an effective solution to the problem of information asymmetry faced by the party committees, enabling their leaders to avoid being held to account for mistakes in cadre selection. It appears that, since 2012, more norms have been developed for selecting cadres, thus facilitating the creation of a “political meritocracy” at the grassroots level.