From rank-seeking to rent-seeking: Changing administrative ethos and corruption in reform China

There are two contrasting images of the contemporaryChinese bureaucracy: the first is one of stiffrevolutionary cadres working under a marginallyreformed mobilization regime; the second is one ofrationalization of administrative institutions withthe transformation of cadres into modern rule-orientedbureaucrats. By examining some prevailing informalbehaviors of Chinese public officials, this articleoffers an alternative image: a neotraditionalistofficialdom with a reconfiguration of somepatrimonial, revolutionary, and legal-rationalinstitutions, ethos, and modes of operation.