Centralized Control and Dispersed Mandates: The Multiple Institutional Logics Behind Lenient Local Discipline in China

The literature on China’s anti-corruption and disciplinary system has primarily focused on the overarching power structure and internal political struggles to explain its nature and effectiveness. We contend, however, that the complexities of frontline operations are equally crucial. Drawing on extensive fieldwork conducted in county-level jurisdictions in Guangdong and Jiangsu Provinces from 2020 to 2022, we examine lenient disciplinary practices within local Discipline Inspection and Supervision Committees (DISCs) and the rationales behind them. Our findings indicate that the combination of DISCs’ consolidated control over personnel and information, coupled with their diverse roles in local governance, creates greater capacity and, more importantly, multiple institutional logics that incentivize lenient disciplinary practices at the local level. This study underscores the deepening structural contradictions within the evolving disciplinary system.