JOP 88/3 pp. 1175-1185 2026-07-01 Original The Compleat Economic Voter in Belgium: Channels of Accountability in a Complex Multilevel Government System
Martin Okolikj, Marc Hooghe, Michael S. Lewis-Beck
GOV 39/3 2026-06-25
Original When Compromise Becomes Standoff: Joint Implementation and the Case of the European Public Prosecutor's Office
Adina Akbik, Ana Bobic, Christian Freudlsperger, Marta Migliorati
CQ 265 pp. 201-217 2026-03-26 Original Multilevel Diaspora Governance: A Case Study of a New Qiaoxiang County in China
Na Ren, Sitong Long
Abstract
Abstract Since China’s open-door policy and “going-out” strategy gained momentum in the 21st century, several new qiaoxiang 侨乡 (“hometowns” of overseas Chinese) have emerged. The launch of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013 has further increased Chinese transnational mobility and the interactions between overseas Chinese communities and their places of origin. This study takes Shaodong city in Hunan province as a case study to explain the driving forces behind the formation of a newly emerging qiaoxiang from political and socio-economic perspectives. It proposes that multilayered transnational network governance is a significant model for qiaoxiang in diaspora engagement. Using a rescaling approach, this study argues that diaspora governance relies not only on the primordial ties of locality, kinship and ethnicity that new emigrants maintain with their hometowns but is also dynamically shaped by pluralized qiaoxiang governmental networks at various levels, including provincial, municipal and county. These networks are constructed by the diaspora through both vertical and horizontal structures. Theoretically, this study transcends the traditional paradigm of centralized and singular diaspora governance at national or subnational levels, contributing to the understanding of the multilevel structures of diaspora governance from decentralized and pluralized perspectives.