State power and elite autonomy in a networked civil society: The board interlocking of Chinese non-profits

TL;DR

This paper examines how Chinese non-profit foundations form a network through shared board members, revealing an emerging elite sphere with significant independence from government control, influenced by political and social events.

Contribution

It uncovers the structural formation of elite groups within Chinese non-profits and highlights their varying degrees of independence from government influence.

Findings

Found a distinct elite subgroup controlling over half of the network's revenue.

Identified multiple internal components sharing similar influence levels.

Revealed a multipolar non-profit network with many autonomous elite groups.

Abstract

In response to failures of central planning, the Chinese government has experimented not only with free-market trade zones, but with allowing non-profit foundations to operate in a decentralized fashion. A network study shows how these foundations have connected together by sharing board members, in a structural parallel to what is seen in corporations in the United States and Europe. This board interlocking leads to the emergence of an elite group with privileged network positions. While the presence of government officials on non-profit boards is widespread, government officials are much less common in a subgroup of foundations that control just over half of all revenue in the network. This subgroup, associated with business elites, not only enjoys higher levels of within-elite links, but even preferentially excludes government officials from the NGOs with higher degree. The emergence of this structurally autonomous sphere is associated with major political and social events in the state-society relationship. Cluster analysis reveals multiple internal components within this sphere that share similar levels of network influence. Rather than a core-periphery structure centered around government officials, the Chinese non-profit world appears to be a multipolar one of distinct elite groups, many of which achieve high levels of independence from direct government control.