Study On Discretionary Behaviors Of Provincial Governments In The Frontier Regions

China is one of the countries in the world having the longest land border and most land neighbors. With lavish natural resources and complex ethnic composition, the vast area of frontiers occupies a prominent strategic position in China. Since China’s reform and opening up, China has been formulating and implementing a series of policies and measures, which have promoted economic and social development sustainably, rapidly and vigorously in the frontier regions, therefore bringing about tremendous changes. However, influenced by many factors such as complex geopolitical milieu, unique geographical environment, a variety of ethnic groups, diverse religions and cultures, and inadequate frontier governance capacity, the development gap between frontier regions and costal developed provinces and between frontier regions and inland provinces, continues to widen. New issues also come out constantly and in every aspect of economy, politics, society, culture and ecology. How to deal with those issues in the frontier regions directly relates to overall national security and stability, as well as to the healthy and sustainable development of economy and society and to long-term security and stability in the regions.In Chinese political system, state governance and frontier governance correlate. The central government is the "leader and decision-maker", while local governments of the frontier regions are the "implementer and participant". In the context of complex and changing international situation, arduous task of domestic reform and development, the role and function of provincial governments in the frontier regions become more and more important in the state governance system and modernization of governance capacity. In recent years, many scholars of both home and abroad, have conducted in-depth research on critical issues of frontier governance and achieved fruitful results. However, very few studied frontier governance from the perspective of provincial governments’behavior, and even fewer creative actions dealing with complex issues, some of which were only found in frontier regions and some in inland provinces as well. For lack of legal procedures to deal with those particular issues, or that of experience from inland provinces, it is necessary and possible for provincial governments in the regions to carry out discretionary actions to solve the issues according to local reality, by following laws and regulations and requirements of the central government. How do provincial governments in the frontier regions perceive and deal with unique issues? Could their governance behavior meet expectations of the nation? Could appeals of frontier regions for interests be responded? What are the laws or patterns for provincial governments to follow in their discretionary actions, and what is the negative effect brought by those actions? How to optimize and adjust those discretionary actions? Analysis of and speculation on the questions above help sort through discretionary actions of provincial governments in the frontier regions for the logic, characteristics and patterns, help improve the capacity and level of frontier governance by provincial governments, and provide China with important experience of state governance system and modernization of governance capacity.Based on such thoughts and background information, this paper examines in depth the practice of discretionary behavior of provincial governments in the frontier regions from the perspective of "Behavior Logic", under the double constraints—one is expectation from the central government, another is self-interest appeals in the frontier regions. It firstly sorts out relevant theories and previous researches for concepts and logic framework of discretionary behavior of provincial governments. Fifteen cases from politics, economy, society, culture and ecology are then respectively selected for study, with consideration of the uniqueness, importance and representativeness of the cases.This paper follows the logic theme of "raising question—constructing theoretical framework—empirical analysis and discussion—concluding policy implication". It intends to investigate the15cases thoroughly and clearly, which is lined with behavior logic of provincial governments in the frontier regions, so as to propel the research to proper depth and breadth. The paper analyses the characteristics, key issues, causes, and possible solutions to solving the problems in discretionary behavior taken by provincial governments in the frontier regions in each of the five fields, constructs a dynamic model of discretionary behavior of the provincial governments consisting of influencing factors and relevant elements, and thus provides four conclusions—firstly, the unique physical geography and humanities environment of frontier regions induce quite some unique issues, therefore provincial governments in the regions must play an active role and carry out a series of creative actions, which are made necessary and possible by differentiated policies and measures of the central government; secondly, governance behavior of provincial governments in the regions, under the double constraints as mentioned above, comprise seven aspects of dynamics source, constraint factors, innovative practice, interest game, path selection, optimization and adjustment, and institutional innovation, strung together by their inherent theoretical logic; thirdly, there are two approaches to improving discretionary behavior of provincial governments in the regions--one is authorization adjustment that deals with occasions where they should fulfill and yet have not fulfilled their responsibilities, and another is action optimization that tackles those where they could do and yet have not done well; fourthly, the boundary of discretionary behavior is vogue under current institutional context. Fully understanding "common" and "special" discretionary behavior is the foundation to set up the boundary of discretionary behavior of provincial governments in frontier regions on the institutional level; lastly, the model of discretionary behavior of provincial governments in the regions presents its own characteristics and patterns that offer values to improve the national policy system in frontier governance, advance governance capacity of provincial governments in frontier regions, and boost the national governance system and modernization of governance capacity.