The Factors Of Success Or Failure In Chinese Historical Reform

To learn from the experience of historical reforms in China is helpful to the comprehensively deepen reform.We construct a comprehensive analysis framework based on the four theories,including the subj ect theory,geography theory,change theory and system theory,to reinterpret the factors of the reforms in history.The results of fsQCA show reform is a combined function of the six conditions:"initial conditions","external environment","the subject","the measures","institutional innovation"and " Enforce requirements".The successful reforms have five configurations,which can be divided into efficient execution modes and centralized execution modes.The failed reforms also have three configurations,which can be divided into few measures modes and high innovation modes.Accordingly,five theoretical propositions can be derived:the reform in the early dynasty is easy to succeed,successful reform has appropriate measures and strength,the core condition is higher requirements,the reform with strong power is easier to succeed and there is an interaction between conditions.We use process-tracing methods to analyze the cases.The Guan Zhong’s reform shows that the effective core mechanism and the two auxiliary mechanisms make it fully successful.Wang Mang’s reform shows that when the core mechanism is full of defects and auxiliary mechanisms are lack,it is easy to fail.Research reveals the strategies of the successful reform.Firstly,it requires institutional innovation to break through historical constraints.Secondly,it needs to construct reasonable paths,especially to establish requirements and make appropriate measures.Finally,it needs to avoid risks in time,especially to regulate the behavior of leaders and their organizations.In summary,This article reveals the characteristics of the factors in pre-modern countries,summarizes the basic configurations of successful paths,analyzes the core mechanism and auxiliary mechanism,and draws new enlightenments on successful reforms.However,there are still problems such as incomplete measurement,insufficient analysis,and limited scope of conclusions.