Lessons from highway management reforms in a less developed province in China

This article describes how national imaginaries of market reforms designed to accommodate fast-growing Chinese regions, collide with embedded formal and informal governance practices in less developed provinces. Whilst much of the literature examines the implications of new infrastructure on regional economics, the management of existing networks dominates decision-making in these more stagnant economies. Using interviews with key stakeholders involved in highway management in Heilongjiang across the provincial and local levels, this paper explores institutional change and persistence using path dependence and junctures as an organising lens. We find that the manner and timing of institutional changes are shaped by the need for political elites in the territorial governing body to reinforce their authority over the vertical functional systems within the jurisdiction. Institutional persistence beneath the changes demonstrates path dependence, related to (a) the vested interests due to power trading and interpersonal relationships and (b) the defence of personnel-related benefits derived from long-standing public institutions. Political and administrative factors rather than economic and technical factors are paramount in influencing transport management and institutional processes in China's less developed provinces.