title: Homophily in the career mobility of China's political elite.
abstract: We argue that leadership promotion in China's political elite relies on homophily for signals of trustworthiness and future cooperative behavior more than on economic performance. We first point to the limitation of the economic performance argument from within the framework of China's specific M-form state structure, and then we proffer a sociological explanation for why higher-level elites in China rely on homophilous associations in recruiting middle-level elites to the top positions of state. Using a unique dataset covering China's provincial leaders from 1979 to 2011, we develop a homophily index focusing on joint origin, joint education and joint work experience. We trace personal similarities in these respects between provincial leaders and members of China's supreme decision-making body, the Politbureau's Standing Committee. We then provide robust evidence confirming the persisting impact of homophilous associations on promotion patterns in post-reform China.
authors.affiliation: Lund University, Department of Economics, Scheelevägen 15B, 22007 Lund, Sweden. Electronic address: sonja.opper@nek.lu.se.
authors.forename: Sonja
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Opper
authors.affiliation: Cornell University, Department of Sociology, 312/330 Uris Hall, 14853 Ithaca, NY, United States. Electronic address: victor.nee@cornell.edu.
authors.forename: Victor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Nee
authors.affiliation: Lund University, Center for East and South-East Asian Studies, Scheelevägen 15B, 22370 Lund, Sweden. Electronic address: stefan.brehm@ace.lu.se.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Brehm
mesh_terms: D002322:Career Mobility; D002681:China; D003906:Developing Countries; D004522:Educational Status; D004651:Employment; D035082:Federal Government; D000071296:Government Employees; D006801:Humans; D011057:Politics; D012929:Psychological Distance
keywords: China; Homophily; Political elite; Promotion