Book talk delivered at Harvard University, Department of Government & Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Comparative Politics Speaker Series, September 15, 2016. This talk presents Chapter 2 ("Directed Improvisation") of my book, How China Escaped the Poverty Trap, released by the political economy series of Cornell University Press. The uploaded slides is an abbreviated version of my talk.

1. Directed Improvisation
Yuen Yuen Ang
Harvard Comparative Politics Workshop, September 15, 2016

3. My Argument
1) By first building markets with “weak”
institutions—that is, institutions that defy
norms of good governance
2) By creating the right conditions for adaptation
through “directed improvisation”

4. Today’s Focus
1) By first building market with “weak”
institutions—that is, institutions that defy
norms of good governance
2) By creating the right conditions for adaptation
through “directed improvisation”
[Chapter 2 of book]

5. A Theory of Adaptation
References to adaptation
What is adaptation?
Problems of adaptation
Application: China

6. Experimentation
Evolve
Innovate
Muddling
through
Incrementalchange
Syncretism Flexible
Positivedeviance
Local solutions for
local problems

7. Adaptation is Widely Invoked
 Prescribed by policy advisors
 Described by social scientists
 Credited as a cause of performance and
authoritarian resilience by China scholars

8. USAID Learning Lab
Adaptive
Management
_______________
“It’s all about
interaction and
change: change is
emergent and
contextual”

9. Adaptation is Widely Invoked
 Prescribed by policy advisors 
BUTprescription ≠ practice
 Described by social scientists
 Credited as a cause of performance and
authoritarian resilience by China scholars

10. Adaptation is Widely Invoked
 Prescribed by policy advisors
 Described by social scientists
 Credited as a cause of performance and
authoritarian resilience by China scholars

11. Syncretism
(combination and
recombination of parts)
__________________
“Creative action is not
the exception but the
very process through
which all political
formations are built”

12. Adaptation is Widely Invoked
 Prescribed by policy advisors
 Described by social scientists 
BUT description ≠ explanation
 Credited as a cause of performance and
authoritarian resilience by China scholars

13. Adaptation is Widely Invoked
 Prescribed by policy advisors
 Described by social scientists
 Credited as a cause of performance and
authoritarian resilience by China scholars

14. “Resilience depends on
the ability of regimes to
adapt”

15. “But why has China
alone benefited from
such [adaptive]
institutions?”

16. Adaptation is Widely Invoked
 Prescribed by policy advisors
 Described by social scientists
 Credited as a cause of performance and
authoritarian resilience by China scholars 
BUT what explains the ability to adapt?

17. A Theory of Adaptation
References to adaptation
What is adaptation?
Problems of adaptation
Application: China

20. Holland defines
adaptation as
“the process where an
organism fits itself to the
environment”

21. What to Know About Adaptation
 Adaptation as bundle of mechanisms: variation, selection, and
niche creation.
 Collectively, these adaptive mechanisms drive process of
evolution.
 Evolution ≠ gradual change
 Biological adaptation ≠ social adaptation

22. Most important of all, know that –
Adaptation does not
automatically occur and indeed often fails.

23. A Theory of Adaptation
References to adaptation
What is adaptation?
Problems of adaptation
Application: China

24. Effective adaptation is
something we all love to
have, but how do we
get it?
(pp. 48)

25. In order to adapt effectively, we must first
tacklecertain problems that are
inherent in the adaptive process.
What are they?

26. Three Problems of Adaptation
VARIATION SELECTION NICHE CREATION
balance variety
and uniformity
clearly define and
reward success
turn heterogeneity
into a collective
advantage

27. Directed Improvisation
VARIATION SELECTION NICHE CREATION
how to balance
variety and
uniformity
how to clearly
define and reward
success
how to turn
heterogeneity into
a collective
advantage

28. A Theory of Adaptation
References to adaptation
What is adaptation?
Problems of adaptation
Application: China

29. VARIATION
Central leaders wants local governments to
exercise flexibility when implementing goals, but
too much flexibility can lead to chaos. How to
balance variety and uniformity in policy
implementation?

30. VARIATION
My answer: By issuing commands in varying
degrees of clarity

31. “National policies
emphasize broad
principles rather than
specific instructions.”
“These slogans direct
the flow policy
implementation at all
levels”
(Rawski & Brandt, China’s Great
Economic Transformation)

32. “a grand but
marvelously vague
expression”
~ On Deng’s famous
slogan of “socialism with
Chinese characteristics” ~

33. But… are political commands in China
really always broad and vague?
No, they are not.

34. Three Varieties of Commands
Clearly forbids a
particular action
Deliberately
unclear, permits
bounded
experimentation
Clearly sanctions a
particular action
Example:
Land quotas
Guidelines on
commune &
brigade
enterprises
(1979)
Guidelines on
rural work
(1984)

35. A Theory of Adaptation
References to adaptation
What is adaptation?
Problems of adaptation
Application: China
CONCLUSION

36. A Theory of Adaptation
 Real key to development lies in promoting adaptation,
not in copying particular policies or institutions.
 Adaptation does not automatically occur. Prescription ≠
practice.
 Promote adaptation: address problems inherent in
adaptive processes (variation, selection, niche creation).

37. Applications of Theory
 China escaped poverty trap by
creating right conditions for
adaptation  directed improvisation
 Aid agencies: How to internally
reform aid agencies to promote
localization (“Making details matter”)
 A new research program on
strategies for enabling effective
adaptation
Center for Global Development
panel on “What should
tomorrow’s aid agencies look
like?”

38. Where to Get the Book
 Buy the book
at Amazon or B&N (Hardcover,
US$27.95). Also available
in Kindle and Nook format.
 For bulk sales and exam copies,
visit Cornell University Press.

39. Thank You!