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NGOs and
Accountability
in China
Child Welfare Organisations

Jude Howell, Xiaoyuan Shang, and

Karen R. Fisher
NGOs and Accountability in China
Jude Howell · Xiaoyuan Shang
Karen R. Fisher

NGOs and
Accountability
in China
Child Welfare Organisations
Jude Howell Karen R. Fisher
Department of International Social Policy Research Centre
Development University of New South Wales
London School of Economics and Sydney, NSW, Australia
Political Science
London, UK

Xiaoyuan Shang
Social Policy Research Centre
University of New South Wales
Sydney, NSW, Australia

ISBN 978-3-319-90220-3 ISBN 978-3-319-90221-0 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90221-0

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018939754

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer
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 Preface and Acknowledgements

This book is the latest result of over three decades of research on

Chinese child welfare, civil society, and NGOs. We were inspired in this
journey by the seminal research and writing of Professor Gordon White
of the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex University, who sadly
passed away in 1998. We worked closely with Professor White through
our Ph.D. research and later joint research projects. His enthusiasm for
China was contagious, as was his passion for social justice. This guided
him in his approach to research and the issues he chose to investigate.
He pioneered the way in research on social welfare and civil society,
informed always by an astute sense of the importance of politics. The
spirit of his work has continued to influence our own research.
Our research on China’s children and child welfare systems work
started with the situation of abandoned children in state child welfare
institutions in China, and expanded to cover other orphaned children,
children with disabilities, children who experienced abuse, and now any
children in disadvantaged situations. Our focus has turned to the actions
of Service-providers in China and how to improve the effectiveness of
the system to provide quality welfare services to all children in disadvan-
taged situations. In China’s current child welfare system, which is mov-
ing towards a mixed welfare system, non-governmental organisations
(NGOs), both international and domestic, play increasingly important
roles.
Our work on NGOs traces its roots back to the pioneering project
on civil society in China led by Professor White. Since then we have

v
vi    Preface and Acknowledgements

traced the development of civil society through its many shifts and turns,
exploring in-depth child welfare NGOs, women’s organisations, labour
groups, and health NGOs. Through these empirical investigations we
have observed the changing Party/state approaches to NGOs and the
development of a welfarist incorporation strategy towards civil society.
This seeks to harness the instrumental benefits of NGOs in the transition
to a mixed welfare system, whilst containing rights-based groups and
advocacy organisations that the Party/state deems threatening.
In this book, we examine the making of accountability and legiti-
macy in China’s child welfare organisations. Most of these NGOs went
through a difficult journey to achieve their goals. During the research,
we not only observed their efforts to build their accountability and legit-
imacy but we also witnessed their development over the years. As they
moved towards a mature organisation, they overcome many unexpected
difficulties, struggling to become registered, obtaining a legal status, and
facing financial and technical pressures, social discrimination and exclu-
sion. They needed the support from people in all walks of life to sur-
vive. During the process, their accountability proved to be their most
important capital, on which they built the foundation for their sustaina-
ble development, connecting them with their donors and services users.
As a result, many of the successful non-government child welfare service
organisations paid particular attention to building their accountability
and legitimacy. It seemed to be an explanation for their survival and con-
tinued development in the highly marketised and politically authoritarian
environment of today’s China.
This project would not have been possible without the support of
many people. First and foremost, we acknowledge the funding provided
by the Australian Research Council, which provided us with a three year
grant to conduct the fieldwork, process the data and analyse our find-
ings. We wholeheartedly express our thanks to Wei Wei, the national
director of the Right To Play at the time of the research, for all the
organisation’s financial and research support to the project. Both the
University of New South Wales, Australia and Beijing Normal University,
China played a pivotal role in aspects of research management. We are
also grateful to the London School of Economics, UK, for its role in
research management as part of the linked arrangement between the uni-
versities.
 Preface and Acknowledgements    vii

Any research project relies always on a team of dedicated researchers.

Here we thank in particular, Zhang Wen, Wang Fang, Chen Lining,
Wang Qingfen for their support in the field-work, and Zhao Yi, Lin
Su, Yu Jie, Cui Yawen, Li Jing, Zhu Zhaonan, Wang Xiafei, Fang Qian,
Zhong Ling, Ryan Gleeson, and Max Alston for their contribution to
the research. We appreciate very much the incisive and constructive com-
ments by anonymous, international peer reviewers. Their suggestions
were invaluable in shaping the final manuscript. We also thank Alina
Yurova of Palgrave Macmillan for her enthusiasm and support in the
writing of the book and Mary Fata for her careful work in steering the
manuscript through to final production.

London, UK Jude Howell

Sydney, Australia Xiaoyuan Shang
Sydney, Australia Karen R. Fisher
 Contents

1 Introduction 1
Clearing the Conceptual Path 5
Aims and Research Questions 9
Why China? 15
Why Child Welfare Groups? 19
Methods 22
Structure of Book 26
References 29

2 Setting the Theoretical Scene 33

What Is Accountability? 34
Accountability and NGOs 39
Accountability and User Participation 42
Accountability in Authoritarian Regimes 43
Accountability in China 45
Accountability and Institutional Change 49
Framework of Analysis of Accountability 52
References 62

3 Welfare Reforms, Child Welfare NGOs,

and Accountability 69
Welfare Reforms 70
Background on Development of NGOs in China 74

ix
x    Contents

Challenges of Accountability for NGOs in China 83

Child Welfare NGOs 85
Children’s Services Characteristics 86
Legal Status 87
Accountability of Registered Child Welfare Organisations 89
References 91

4 Making Accountability—Liming Family 95

Liming Family: Origins, Purpose, and Activities 96
Operating in the Interstices of Legality 99
Struggle for Legitimate Registration 101
Seeking Government Funds for Shared Responsibilities 105
Extracting Benefits to Secure Children’s Rights 106
Reputation and Trust as Accountability Capital 110
Organisational Accountability 111
Financial Accountability 112
Professional Accountability 115
Conclusion 117
References 119

5 Accountability and User Participation—The Case

of Angel House 121
Background 123
Organisational Accountability 125
Financial Accountability 129
Accountability Through Building Capacity and Professionalism 132
Leading Role of Professionals 132
Staff Training and Support 134
Open Rehabilitation and Parents’ Education 134
Accountability to Funders 136
Using Mass Media as Surrogate Accountability 136
Accountability to Users 137
Conclusion 138
References 140

6 Changing Accountabilities—Children’s Hope Foundation 141

Background to Children’s Hope Foundation 142
Dual Accountability 146
 Contents    xi

New Actors and New Accountability Arrangements 147

Accumulating a Stock of Accountability Capital on the Path to
Separation and Independence 152
Organisational Accountability 152
Financial Accountability 155
Auditing 155
Financial Accountability to the General Public 156
Professional Accountability 157
User Accountability 158
Conclusion 160
References 162

7 Accountability of a Mixed Child Welfare Organisation 163

Background to the Mixed Welfare Institution 164
Children in the Institution 165
International Co-operation 167
Development of Resource Centres Targeted at Communities 169
Accountability to Government 170
Financial Accountability 174
Financial Accountability to International Partners 176
Managerial Accountability to Staff 178
Accountability to Children and the Community 180
Conclusion 183
References 185

8 Conclusion 187
Key Findings 190
Accumulating Stocks of Accountability Capital 190
Hierarchies of Accountability 192
Politics of Building Accountability and Legitimacy 193
Institutional Change 198
Making Accountability but Far from Perfect 200
Theoretical Contribution 202
Policy Implications 206
Future Research 209
References 211
xii    Contents

Erratum to: Welfare Reforms, Child Welfare NGOs,

and Accountability E1

Appendix 213

Glossary 217

Index 219
 List of Figures

Fig. 7.1 Children in the Mixed Welfare Institution 1985–2009 166

Fig. 7.2 Children adopted from the Mixed Welfare Institution
2000–2009 167
Fig. 7.3 Annual income generated by the welfare institution
(Source Annual work reports of Mixed Municipal Welfare
Institution 2001–2009) 175

xiii
 List of Tables

Table 1.1 Characteristics of child welfare organisations 24

Table 2.1 Legitimacy and accountability of NGOs 58
Table 5.1 Annual income and expenditure of Angel House
(2006–2014) (′000 RMB) 129
Table 7.1 Children in the Mixed Welfare Institution 1985–2009 166
Table 7.2 Children adopted from the Mixed Welfare Institution
2000–2009 167

xv
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction

From the sunny spring day that the Wang’s son was born in Tianjin,
the whole family started searching for treatment for his developmental
disabilities. A few years later, they were exhausted financially and psy-
chologically. Looking at his despairing son and patient grandson, the
grandfather reflected: “I finally realized that, if my disabled grandson was
to live as a person, there must be an adult who does not live as one too”,
because they must devote all their time to care for him. Instead of giv-
ing up, he established the Qizhi Child Rehabilitation and Care Home
with the support of Tianjin Disabled Persons’ Federation in a rundown,
small shed, to provide services to children with developmental disabilities
and their families. Six years later, as he lay dying, the grandfather held
his son’s hand and unable to speak, used the other hand to point to his
grandson. His son agreed, “I’ll do it, I’ll take care of the children at the
care home for the rest of my life”.
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) often start from citizens’
initiatives such as the example of the grandfather in Tianjin, even in
authoritarian states like China. These citizens experience or observe gaps
in state provision and sometimes are driven to remedy them by setting
up NGOs. It is often argued that authoritarian regimes provide public
welfare services as a means to enhance their legitimacy in the eyes of cit-
izens and maintain their rule (Cassani 2017; Dukalskis and Gerschewski
2017; Huang 2015; Gandhi 2008; Bueno de Mesquita et al. 2003, pp.
29–30; Wintrobe 1998). In capitalist authoritarian regimes, the state is
not the sole provider of welfare services; rather there is a mixed welfare

© The Author(s) 2019 1

J. Howell et al., NGOs and Accountability in China,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90221-0_1
2 J. HOWELL ET AL.

system where the private sector and non-governmental sector play a com-
plementary role. In authoritarian contexts where there are tight restric-
tions over civil society groups, service-delivery NGOs are subject to strict
controls and monitoring which can hamper their approach to service
delivery, the scale of services provided and their organisational develop-
ment. For authoritarian regimes, there is the perennial risk that service-­
delivery NGOs serve as fronts for political opposition groups and that
their very existence could stimulate the development of more politically
oriented civil society groups demanding rights and political change. Such
regimes often look with suspicion upon service-delivery NGOs that adopt
a rights-based approach to their work and that seek to influence govern-
ment policy. Added to this, authoritarian governments fear that external
agents working on behalf of foreign powers seek to bring about regime
change through their support to civil society groups. These perceptions
of regime threat can limit the potential role of NGOs in delivering wel-
fare services and shaping the direction of welfare policy, not least by fos-
tering a restrictive regulatory, political and social environment for NGOs.
Post-socialist authoritarian states, such as China, Vietnam, and the
former Soviet Republics face particular challenges in reforming their wel-
fare systems. Under the political economy of planning, markets were vir-
tually eliminated and civil society groups were sharply curtailed. Though
some welfare-oriented civil society organisations may have been incor-
porated into the planning system, they were limited in number, served
mainly as intermediary conduits between generic groups of citizens and
the Party, and had minimal room for innovation. Following the collapse
of state-planned socialist systems and their respective welfare structures
in the early and late 1980s, reforming post-socialist states have moved
towards mixed welfare systems for the financing and delivery of welfare
services. However, they do not preside over a pre-existing supply of pri-
vate and non-governmental service providers that could be harnessed in
welfare reform. These have to be grown by creating incentives, building
their capacity, and developing an enabling regulatory environment of rel-
evant laws, policies, and regulations, and fostering public confidence in
their work. Whilst laws, policies, and regulations may endow alternative
welfare providers with legal legitimacy, the provision of adequate, qual-
ity welfare services entails much more than this. Competencies, respon-
siveness to user needs, professionalism, efficient management, effective
governance, and financial and moral probity are vital ingredients for an
adequate, quality mixed welfare system. Ensuring that welfare service
 1 INTRODUCTION 3

providers have these crucial components hinges on putting in place

effective institutions of accountability that can facilitate their broader
legitimacy as legal, professional, and responsive providers of services.
Accountability and legitimacy thus go hand in hand.
However, in authoritarian regimes, ensuring accountability of gov-
ernment officials, bureaucrats, and welfare services providers, whether
state, private, or non-governmental, becomes much more difficult than
in liberal democratic mixed welfare systems. This is especially so in post-­
socialist ones, where a robust legal system, an independent civil society,
media, independent watchdogs, independent courts are constrained and
weakly developed, These governments are moving towards mixed welfare
systems where NGOs play a role. They can put in place legal processes
of accountability such as registration and licencing, but NGOs too have
to invest in creating institutions of accountability. This is not just to sat-
isfy government requirements for accountability but also to gain public
trust and confidence in their operations, without which it would be hard
to attract funds and clients. The process of ‘making accountability’ is
an essential part of building their legitimacy, which in turn can facilitate
their scaling-up and organisational development. This involves navigat-
ing relations with an often fragmented state serviced by suspicious local
state officials and riven by the contending goals and interests of different
departments. It also entails changing the sometimes negative public per-
ceptions of non-governmental service-delivery providers.
The politics of how service-delivery NGOs in post-socialist states craft
accountability and legitimacy is thus the central theme of this book. We
explore this through the case of post-socialist, authoritarian China which
has been gradually reforming its welfare provision towards a mixed sys-
tem involving non-governmental providers and the private sector. A key
dilemma facing the Chinese government was that the regulating environ-
ment for NGOs was overly restrictive, resulting in very few NGOs actually
registering as social organisations. If the government sought to subcon-
tract services to NGOs and expand the supply of non-governmental ser-
vice providers, then NGOs needed to be legal entities registered with the
Ministry of Civil Affairs (MOCA) as social organisations. In the light of
this from 2008 onwards the Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao administration
(2002–2012) (hereafter referred to as the Hu-Wen administration), ini-
tiated experimental pilots in several cities and provinces. Local authorities
were given permission to experiment with the relaxation of registra-
tion requirements for NGOs to facilitate the growth in the number of
4 J. HOWELL ET AL.

service-delivery NGOs eligible to bid for governmental welfare services

contracts. The subsequent Xi Jinping administration (2012 onwards)
(hereafter referred to as the Xi administration), built on these initiatives
and within a year of assuming office had rolled out the subcontracting of
welfare services to NGOs across the country. These regulations have since
been accompanied by a raft of directives, orders, and local regulations
aimed, amongst other things, at ensuring the accountability of NGOs,
their professionalism, effectiveness, competency, and financial probity,
thereby bolstering their legitimacy as providers of services in the eyes of
local government officials and the public.
However, NGOs do not gain legitimacy in the eyes of the public
overnight or merely by registering with MOCA, or by grafting on for-
mal accountability systems. Although registration sets in train various
accountability processes, these alone cannot guarantee public confidence
in the competence, probity, and effectiveness of NGOs. Accountability
and legitimacy have to be earned, particularly for NGOs that start life
as unknown quantities. Given that most NGOs were not able to register
and gain legal status, not least because of the reluctance of government
departments to act as sponsors as required by the regulations, it was even
more crucial that NGOs developed other forms of legitimacy as well.
Though some NGOs registered as companies in order to have some legal
status and a bank account, technically they were always at risk of being
closed down on the grounds of not being genuine companies that exist
to make a profit. Registering as a company was a second-best option next
to gaining full legal status as a social organisation through registration.
Not being registered at all left an NGO constantly vulnerable to harass-
ment and to potential closure.
Nevertheless, many NGOs have been able to develop their work pro-
viding services and pursuing rights issues despite not being registered.
The reasons for this are complex and clearly in an authoritarian state,
pursuing a rights agenda is much more sensitive than providing services.
For some local government officials, the kind of services provided by
NGOs is seen as filling gaps, providing services that they do not have
the funds to do, or would not be able to do for reasons of outreach or
legal constraints. Furthermore, NGOs working at the grassroots level are
a useful source of information for local government officials about citi-
zens’ preferences and views. Insofar as NGOs appear to be harmless and
providing useful services to disadvantaged groups and communities, local
government officials often tolerate their activities, and in some cases,
even openly recognise their achievements through awards and taking
 1 INTRODUCTION 5

government delegations to visit their services. This tolerance is not just

a reflection of rational local government officials recognising the benefits
of NGO-provided services, but also encapsulates considerable ‘accounta-
bility work’ carried out by NGOs to achieve public and government rec-
ognition and enhance their legitimacy. In this way, they not only protect
themselves against governmental harassment but also strengthen their
possibilities for legal registration with the MOCA. This may have posi-
tioned well some NGOs to apply for welfare services contracts that were
later rolled out during the Xi administration.
As post-socialist governments move towards mixed welfare systems
involving a plurality of funders and service providers, state-run wel-
fare institutions, too, have become pressured to raise extra funds from
non-governmental sources. This has pushed them to seek additional
funding from fee-raising activities, raising funds from international
organisations and the general public and engaging with a wider range
of actors, including NGOs, community groups, and international agen-
cies. Whilst state-run service providers already enjoyed legal status and
were endowed with much stronger legitimacy than unregistered NGOs,
they also became subject to different accountability demands as they plu-
ralised their sources of support. State-run welfare institutions, too, are
having to learn the craft of ‘second-order’ accountability-making aimed
at other funders and service users. Compared to NGOs, however, they
start from a more privileged position as legally sanctioned institutions.
Nevertheless, they face particular systemic and organisational constraints
that make them less adept at becoming mixed welfare institutions.
But what is accountability and what kind of accountability do NGOs
build? Here we have first to clear the conceptual path.

Clearing the Conceptual Path

As a first step, we need to clarify the key questions that analysing
accountability demands, whether in relation to governments, NGOs, or
companies. These are:

(1) Who can demand accountability?

(2) From whom is accountability demanded?
(3) For what is accountability sought?
(4) How is accountability sought?
(5) What sanctions can be brought to bear on the person/organisa-
tion held to account?
6 J. HOWELL ET AL.

Conceptually, the notion of accountability is complex, contested, and

elastic. In its most basic incarnation, accountability refers to a relation-
ship between two parties, A and B, where A is usually the citizen and B
the government. In this relationship, A demands that B provides reasons
for their behaviour. Accountability is essentially a relationship of power
between two parties. The parameters of accountability are thus never
given but have to be worked out through formal and informal processes
of contestation and negotiation.
Various approaches to accountability add a further layer of complex-
ity to the concept. Different emphases may be given to different types
of accountability, such as financial accountability, managerial accounta-
bility, image accountability, and democratic accountability that involve a
multiple matrix of actors. Underlying the priority given to any of these
different types of accountability are relationships of power between prin-
cipal and agent, that is account-holders and account-givers. Seeking
accountability requires the empowerment of users to press for enhanced
participation and the right to redress and thus for a broader, substantive
democratisation of society.
Given the issues of empowerment and participation, accountability to
users can prove particularly difficult in authoritarian contexts where insti-
tutions of checks and balances, open media, and organised civil society
are severely constrained. Moreover, alternative options of welfare provi-
sion, whether provided by the state, market, or NGOs, remain very lim-
ited in formerly state-planned economies, so users cannot readily exercise
choice by exiting and finding an alternative provider. Instead, voice is the
prime vehicle through which they can express their (dis)satisfaction. Yet
even with voice, the lack of alternatives as well as the limits on expression
in authoritarian states can make users cautious about exercising voice.
The choices of exit and voice that Hirschman (1970) first drew attention
to are thus heavily bracketed in post-socialist states. These constraints
in turn exacerbate the effects of the tight regulatory environment in
authoritarian contexts that limits the scale, depth, and approach to ser-
vice delivery.
Set against this context NGOs have developed what we call ‘second-­
order accountability’ as a means to build and enhance their reputation
and legitimacy. Crafting second-order accountability involves accumulat-
ing a stock of accountability capital. Accountability capital includes such
‘inputs’ (Nathan 2003) as positive media exposure, governmental awards,
transparency of finances, professional expertise, reports to donors, and so
 1 INTRODUCTION 7

on. These are pieces of evidence that can be used to justify claims that
are made by NGOs and enhance the legitimacy of the NGOs. The more
stock of accountability capital that an NGO can accumulate, the greater
its chances of tacit government recognition, minimising harassment, and
ensuring its survival. It also enables it to attract funding from different
sources and gain the trust and confidence of government officials, poten-
tial donors, and the general public, thus contributing further to its sur-
vival and development. An expanding constituency of support increases
the legitimacy of NGOs and provides a protective veil against unwarranted
governmental harassment. Accountability and legitimacy are thus closely
related (see Chapter 2 for fuller discussion). Accountability is the means
through which account-holders can demand accountability from agents or
account-givers that make claims about how they govern, or in our case
how they provide services. Where account is seen to be given, the agent,
in this case NGOs, gains legitimacy, and this legitimacy in turn can be
used as in input for accountability. Making accountability and legitimacy is
thus a crucial part of an NGO’s strategy for survival.
As a second step, we need to clarify the term ‘NGO’, which is a rel-
atively new term in the Chinese context, though widely used across the
world and in the literature on organisation by citizens. Though the con-
cept of an NGO is deployed globally in academe, politics, and policy, it
can, like many social science terms, be defined in a variety of ways and
with varying degrees of analytic rigour, differing in terms of its empiri-
cal referents, its political connotations, its range of activities, its assumed
values and organisational features, and appropriated politically for differ-
ent ideological purposes. In general, the term NGO refers to an organ-
isation that is neither governmental nor profit seeking and has a public
benefit purpose. In practice, however, such neat boundaries prove to
be messy and fudged, as some NGOs receive government funding and
some are even set up by government (government-organised NGOs or
GONGOs). NGOs may be more or less formalised, with some formal
NGOs having a clear legal basis, a body of staff and volunteers, a consti-
tution, mission statement and goals, a structure of governance such as a
board of trustees or directors, and a source of revenue that is neither tax-
ation nor profit. NGOs can engage in a range of activities including ser-
vice provision, advocacy on behalf of particular causes and social groups,
rights work, humanitarian work, and action research and policy influ-
ence. The term NGO is often used interchangeably with other terms,
such as non-profit organisation, grassroots organisation, voluntary sector
8 J. HOWELL ET AL.

organisation, or third sector organisation (Bebbington et al. 2008; Lewis

2007; Hilhorst 2003, pp. 3–5; Howell and Pearce 2001; Salamon and
Anheier 1992). It is distinct from social movements such as the environ-
mental or women’s movement, which are looser, more fluid, and more
intermittent ways of organising, though NGOs may be important con-
stituents of such movements. It is also distinct from a membership group
such as a trade union or business association.
In socialist states such as China or in state-dominated authoritarian
regimes, there may be little space for independent organising. In such
contexts, the concept of an NGO may not be part of public, policy, aca-
demic, or political discourse. Moreover, the idea of a non-governmen-
tal organisation is likely to be threatening, being viewed as a potential
channel for destabilising authoritarian regimes. In the case of China,
as more independent organisations emerged in the reform period from
1978 onwards and researchers became exposed to the literature on civil
society and NGOs, there were political concerns about how to translate
these ideas, which mattered for how the government might then deal
with these new organisational entities. The key stumbling block was the
idea that the ‘non-’ in NGO might mean anti-government, suggesting
that these organisations were potential channels of dissent and opposi-
tion (Ma 1994).
For the first two decades of reform the Chinese term of ‘social organ-
isation’ (shehui zuzhi), which derived from its usage in Soviet Russia,
was used to describe newly forming social groups in the reform period.
Technically, a social organisation was an organisation registered with the
MOCA. However, as will be discussed in further detail in Chapter 3,
registration proved to be a cumbersome affair, riddled with constraints
and barriers that ultimately discouraged registration. As more foreign
NGOs began to operate in China, particularly from the millennium
onwards, the usage of the term NGO became more current and was
generally translated literally as ‘fei zhengfu zuzhi’. In Chinese, the term
NGO (fei zhengfu jigou) is used interchangeably with other terms, such
as social organisation, charity, grassroots organisation, association, and
registered non-profit enterprise.
With the proliferation of Chinese NGOs from 2000 onwards, the
concept of NGO began to be used loosely to refer to all more inde-
pendently organised groups, whether registered or not. The book thus
starts with a definition of NGO that is not contingent on its legal sta-
tus. As will be seen in the case-studies, most child welfare NGOs were
 1 INTRODUCTION 9

unregistered due to the considerable difficulties obtaining registration.

The newness of the organisational structure of an NGO coupled with the
challenges to registration have in turn affected the organisational devel-
opment of NGOs in China. Without the legitimacy accorded through
registration along with the policy constraints on domestic revenue-­
raising, most NGOs in China are best characterised as ‘proto-NGOs’,
rather than fully fledged NGOs that would be more widely found in
liberal democracies. They are proto-NGOs in that their organisational
­structures and systems, governance arrangements, practices, principles,
and channels for fund-raising are often weakly developed. As a result,
most NGOs are very small in scale, with few staff and volunteers, and
short-term funding sources that render sustainability and long-term
planning distant goals. Added to this, as will be discussed in Chapter 3,
government suspicion of independent citizen organising through NGOs
and foreign funding has further hindered the development of a thriving
civil society, of which NGOs are often a key part.

Aims and Research Questions

This book sets out to address the conceptual, structural, and political
issues around the making of accountability and legitimacy by NGOs in
an authoritarian regime where different service providers, including
NGOs, are playing an increasing part in developing welfare services. It
pursues this through the lens of child welfare NGOs during the Hu-Wen
period of administration (2002–2012) when numerous initiatives were
adopted to address issues of poverty and inequality, and the first five
years of the Xi era (2012–2017), when new laws, regulations, and pol-
icies governing NGOs were further developed and extended across the
country. Its broad aims are first, to enhance understanding theoreti-
cally and conceptually of accountability and legitimacy in authoritar-
ian states, focusing on the case of China. In doing so, it develops the
concepts of ‘second-order accountability’ and ‘stock of accountability
capital’. Second, it aims to understand empirically how NGOs develop
second-­ order accountability by accumulating a stock of accountability
capital as a means to build their reputation and legitimacy. It considers
the implications of this for service user participation and the hierarchy
of accountabilities that emerges. Third, the book considers more broadly
how these findings on the crafting of accountability in China shed light
on processes of institutional change in authoritarian contexts.
10 J. HOWELL ET AL.

The key research questions investigated are:

First, what combination of accountability capital inputs do NGOs
draw on to build their second-order accountability and legitimacy? This
in turn generates a number of sub-questions:

• What kind of links has the NGO nurtured with local and national
media to publicise its work and what kind of exposure has it
received?
• How has it tried to cultivate good relations with local government?
• Has it been recognised by local government in any way for its
achievements?
• To what extent is the NGO developing professional networks,
strengthening its professional expertise through training and
absorbing latest scientific knowledge?

Second, what hierarchy of accountabilities does this lead to, such as the
prioritisation of financial accountability over say organisational accounta-
bility, and how does this in turn affect user participation in accountabil-
ity? This also leads to a number of sub-questions:

• What processes of accountability has the organisation established

in terms of organisational accountability, managerial accountability,
financial accountability, and child welfare accountability and why?
• What pressures do funders exert on the NGO in terms of account-
ability? How does this affect financial reporting procedures, trans-
parency and auditing processes, procedures to avoid conflicts of
interest, and how does this ensure probity and appropriate use of
resources?
• What is the organisational structure of accountability, including
the role of board members, external auditors, members and users,
management and establishment history? What are the processes of
decision-making?
• What factors have pushed NGOs to develop professional expertise,
such as governmental requirements, international funders, profes-
sional peer expectations, training, and parental demands? What are
the technical and professional qualifications, experience, and prac-
tices relevant to child welfare services and to what extent does the
NGO manifest these?
 1 INTRODUCTION 11

• How do users participate in the organisation and how is informa-

tion fed back to users? What are the systemic biases against users
that hinder them from seeking accountability? How does user
participation in child welfare service provision affect child wel-
fare accountability? What is the responsiveness to user preferences,
assuming these are known?
• What sanctions can different stakeholders deploy to ensure account-
ability and change?

Third, what are the politics shaping the process of making accountabil-
ity and legitimacy in NGOs in an authoritarian state? Sub-questions here
include:

• What are the power relations between those demanding account-

ability and those giving account and what are the sources of this
power, such as funding, professional standing, and knowledge?
• What are the power relations between NGOs and the state and how
do these affect the strategies and tactics NGOs use to survive?
• How do these state-NGO relations affect how NGOs set about
making accountability and establishing legitimacy? How do pro-
cesses of institutional change in the state create opportunities or
constraints for NGOs?
• How do social divisions along the parameters of age and profes-
sionalism affect the power of children to hold service-providers to
account?

In exploring these key research questions, the book draws on three bod-
ies of literature, namely theories of accountability, institutional change,
and user participation. As these are discussed more fully in Chapter 2,
we provide here a brief overview of their relevance and application
in the book as well as how this research contributes to their develop-
ment. Theories of accountability have been developed primarily in rela-
tion to liberal democratic states. This book draws on these theories but
adapts these to apply to an authoritarian context. For example, it applies
Mattei’s (2009) multidimensional conceptual framework as a tool for
analysing accountability by service provider organisations (user-initiated
NGOs, other NGOs, government and private organisations) to service
users, the wider public, and the state in the empirical setting of child
12 J. HOWELL ET AL.

welfare in China. In particular, it examines accountability to these three

groups in terms of accounting for financial expenditure including pub-
lic and private funds (financial accountability); operating an efficient and
legally compliant organisation (organisational accountability); follow-
ing best practices (professional accountability) and achieving the child
outcomes and intended goals of social services (child welfare accounta-
bility). The analysis of empirical data identifies how Chinese child wel-
fare organisations manage, avoid, or ignore conflict between these four
accountability dimensions as certain dimensions become prioritised over
others and the implications of this for different account-holders. The
multidimensional framework provides a useful entry point for tracing the
development of accountability in child welfare groups in China and for
analysing the emerging hierarchy of certain types of accountability.
The second strand of literature that informs the book’s conceptual
and theoretical framework concerns processes of institutional change.
Theories of accountability developed in relation to liberal democratic
states focus more on the outcomes of accountability-making processes,
that is, the types of accountability processes that exist such as financial
accountability and managerial accountability. They reveal little about
the processes that lead to the making of accountability processes. To
understand this, the book builds upon theories of institutional change.
Institutions refer to the rules, procedures, and norms that govern pro-
cesses of change (North 1990). Historical institutionalism reminds us
that institutional change has a past, present, and future, that cannot be
fully grasped through a static approach. Similarly, attempts to modify
institutionalist theory have highlighted the role of informal processes of
change and the importance of social structures in shaping change (Hall
and Taylor 1996). Institutional change can be prompted by exogenous
events such as new trade relations, or through endogenous processes of
change such as a change in political regime, or through sudden events
such as a global financial crash. Alternatively, there is also a growing
body of work which points to the gradual nature of institutional change.
The accountability work done by NGOs in China exemplifies grad-
ual institutional change that enhances the resilience and survival of the
organisation. This in turn relates to a sub-literature in the field of Chinese
governance where the starting point has been the adaptive capacities
and resilience of the Chinese Community Party (CCP). Andrew Nathan
(2003, 2009) identifies a gamut of input institutions used by the CCP
to shore up its legitimacy and adapt to a citizenry that has become less
 1 INTRODUCTION 13

accepting of state propaganda and able to organise through the Iinternet.

These input institutions include measures to enhance government trans-
parency, efforts to include citizens in local decision-making processes,
community elections, and introducing new processes of accountability
beyond the traditional ones of petitioning and leveraging personal con-
nections. NGOs in a similar way have also developed adaptive inputs to
enhance their legitimacy, resilience, and survival. The research thus high-
lights not only the gradual process of institutional change by NGOs in
response to a highly controlling state but also the processes of adapta-
tion by leveraging various combinations of inputs that make up a stock of
accountability capital in an authoritarian context.
The development of NGOs and their accountability work also high-
lights the way that NGOs operate in the crevices of gradual state institu-
tional change. Particularly relevant here is the idea of ‘drift’ in theories of
gradual institutional change, whereby the rules governing the system do
not change in line with circumstances. In this context, local officials have
opportunities to change rules informally and discretely. The rules gov-
erning the registration of NGOs in China are a good example of rules
that no longer correspond to changed circumstances. This then leads
to a process of drift, whereby local officials ignore these rules and allow
NGOs to continue to operate because there are advantages to them in
doing so such as filling gaps in service provision and gaining informa-
tion about citizens’ preferences, priorities, and opinions. For their part,
NGOs use the spaces and opportunities that open up because of this
process of drift to develop their activities, accountability, and legitimacy.
The third strand of literature informing the book relates to user par-
ticipation and democratic accountability, one aspect of which is the
participation of people who use services in the way the organisation
operates. User participation in social services sits along a spectrum of
user-focused power devolution consistent with theories of the democ-
ratisation of social service provision (Shier 2010; Cornwall and Gaventa
2000). Participation theory argues that accountability, quality of service,
and user outcomes can be linked by empowering people who use ser-
vices. As Kilby (2006, p. 951) underlines, without downward account-
ability to users through semi-formal or formal arrangements, NGOs
cannot be effective in empowerment. Participation has intrinsic and
instrumental purposes—enabling people’s control over the services they
use and influencing practice in child welfare organisations. Processes
range from feedback about services to the full co-production of services
14 J. HOWELL ET AL.

(Bovaird 2007; Douthwaite et al. 2006; Kilby 2006). In services for chil-
dren, this involves families, advocates, or representatives and the direct
participation of children to influence service delivery, resource allocation,
and governance practices to maximise children’s agency (Shier 2010;
Cavet and Sloper 2004). As of yet, user participation in social services
in China is rare (Zhong and Fisher 2017). The research thus explores
cases of enhanced participation through user-initiated NGOs to achieve
accountability in child welfare groups in China.
The book makes a number of contributions at the theoretical and
empirical level. First, it deepens understanding about how NGOs make
accountability and legitimacy in an authoritarian context. In doing so, it
puts forward the concepts of second-order accountability and accounta-
bility capital to describe, capture, and explain the politics of the process
of accountability-making. It also contributes by thinking about account-
ability as a dynamic process rather than merely an outcome. This way
of approaching accountability and legitimacy has particular salience in an
authoritarian context where there are strict state controls over basic free-
doms such as freedom of organisation and where achieving legal status is
particularly difficult.
Second, by taking a dynamic, processual approach to accountability-­
making, it illuminates how exogenous factors such as external funders
both domestic and foreign as well as endogenous factors such as atti-
tudes to users can lead to certain types of accountability being prioritised
over others. In particular, it reveals the power relations that underpin
systemic biases against marginalised and vulnerable groups in pursuing
accountability. It provides a basis for understanding the implications of
moving from a state-dominated mode of welfare provision to a mixed
welfare model of provision.
Third, it contributes to understanding how institutional change and
adaptation occurs in authoritarian contexts. It focuses not on the CCP
or state as much of this literature has done, but on NGOs. Their resil-
ience and survival in authoritarian contexts depends on NGOs’ ability to
adapt and navigate often contradictory relations with the different parts
of the state. By emphasising the gradual and dynamic nature of change,
the book thus challenges depictions of China that suggest an unchang-
ing form of authoritarianism. It contextualises NGO survival strategies,
particularly those seeking to leverage accountability and legitimacy as
tactics in viability and organisational development, in the context of an
adaptive dynamic between state and NGOs. Just as the CCP uses input
 1 INTRODUCTION 15

institutions to enhance its survival and resilience, so too, the book sug-
gests, NGOs use accountability capital to ensure their continued exist-
ence and development. At the empirical level, the book provides the first
in-depth study of accountability for welfare provision in an authoritarian
regime, with a specific focus on child welfare groups.
Finally, the book contributes to accountability theories by bringing
politics back into the discussion. These politics relate to the way cer-
tain hierarchies of accountability emerge and become consolidated.
Whether in China or elsewhere, the common tendency is for financial
and organisational hierarchy to become prioritised over other dimen-
sions, particularly accountability to users. This cannot be reduced to
some technical inevitability about organisational development processes;
rather, it reflects the power relations between those demanding account-
ability and those providing account. These power relations in turn
connect closely to the politics around whose demands get heeded and
prioritised. As seen in this book, sociocultural attitudes including issues
of deference to age and expertise work against considering the views
and voices of children. Politics is evident in the way NGOs navigate the
restrictive environment within which they operate and manage their rela-
tionships with government to ensure survival. Their navigation is not just
a matter of reducing government suspicion towards them but also of gar-
nering public confidence so as to raise funds and extend their client base.
Having clarified the meaning of accountability adopted here and its
multidimensional nature, we need to consider also why the book focuses
on China and on child welfare groups and the methods used in the
research.

Why China?
The case of China is particularly pertinent for several reasons. First, fol-
lowing the introduction of market reforms in December 1978, social
organisations in China have proliferated in number across the country,
engaging in issues ranging from environmental protection to the welfare
of the children of prisoners. They enjoyed a significant spurt in growth
after China entered the World Trade Organisation at the end of 2001,
though most of them have not been able to register under the highly
restrictive regulatory framework for registration. Government officials,
particularly in the public security agencies have tended to view NGOs
with suspicion, tolerating some, keeping an eye on others and in some
16 J. HOWELL ET AL.

cases, harassing and closing them down. The Chinese case illustrates
well the impact of bureaucratic fragmentation on the progress of wel-
fare reform and civil society development. In particular, we can observe
the gradual crafting of a welfarist incorporation strategy towards civil
society groups through the Hu-Wen and Xi eras, whereby certain ser-
vice-oriented NGOs with instrumental value to the Party-state in wel-
fare reform are encouraged and licensed, whilst most other civil society
groups remain in an institutional limbo of non-registration (Howell
2015). The imperative of advancing welfare reform through the diversifi-
cation of service providers using a strategy of welfarist incorporation has
to some extent diluted the impasse between welfare-focused departments
and security agencies. This impasse centred around the risk that ena-
bling NGOs to develop so as to provide welfare services might provide
an opportunity for civil society organisations perceived as threatening to
emerge and grow.
Second, the CCP experimented with new forms of accountability in
the government–citizen relationship during the Hu-Wen years. The pro-
cesses of marketisation and commodification have not only led to ris-
ing income, gender, and regional inequalities but also increasing social
protests both in rural and urban areas concerning corruption, widening
inequalities, maltreatment in the workplace, displacement, and social
injustice. Existing methods of providing accountability such as the peti-
tioning system (xinfang) are unable to cope with the volume of com-
plaints and are deliberately undermined by local officials so as to avoid
criticism and coming under the scrutiny of higher levels of author-
ity. Local citizens have increasingly bypassed local petition offices and
appealed to higher levels. Some have even encamped in Beijing out-
side relevant government ministry buildings to pursue their grievances.
Whilst central and local government officials have generally responded
with coercion to protests, demonstrations, and similar ‘mass incidents’,
in the last decade they have also turned to ‘softer tactics’ of appeasement,
engaging in dialogue, and experimenting with new methods of account-
ability. To this end, they have sought to improve the calibre of govern-
ment officials through competitive entrance examinations; introducing
systems of performance evaluation of government cadres accompanied
by a system of rewards (promotion) and sanctions (demotion); through
anti-corruption initiatives; through the introduction of competitive
­village elections; and through indirect elections within the Party.
Another random document with
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Arbeit das stattliche alte Mal wieder zu Tage. (Abb. 86.)
Jahrhunderte mögen vergangen sein, ehe der schwere Block auf der
»Kreuzwiese« am Rande der alten Straße in den festen Grund
einsinken konnte und sicherlich ist der Querbalken, über dem bereits
wieder Erde und Rasendecke lagerte, auch schon vor vielen
Jahrzehnten von der Oberfläche verschwunden gewesen. Trotzdem
war die Kunde von dem Kreuz im Volksgedächtnis mit solcher
Sicherheit erhalten geblieben, daß eine Gruppe jugendlicher Helfer
planmäßig mit Schanzzeug von Dresden und Meißen auszog, um
den versunkenen Stein zu heben.
Als Gegenstück hierzu und als Beispiel eines verächtlichen
Bubenstreichs schlimmster Sorte sei das schöne Steinkreuz im
Großen Garten zu Dresden erwähnt, das seit undenklichen Zeiten
schräg über eine steinerne Walze gelehnt am Wege lag (Nr. 45,
Abb. 22); im August 1920 ist es nächtlicherweile zerschlagen
worden. Die staatliche Gartenverwaltung hat zwar die Trümmer
sorgfältig mit Zement zusammengeflickt, das ganze Kreuz aber aus
Besorgnis vor neuen Roheiten flach auf den Boden gelegt, so daß
es jetzt einen höchst kümmerlichen Eindruck macht.
 Abb. 84 Oberau bei Meißen a. E. (vgl. Abb. 75)
Zu den neuen Funden sei im allgemeinen bemerkt, daß keines der
Stücke irgendwie aus dem Rahmen des früher festgestellten
Bestandes herausfällt. In Form und Größe, Alter und Zeichnung,
Standort und Gesteinsart begegnen uns auch hier die gewohnten
Eigenschaften (vgl. Nr. 77, Abb. 4), insbesondere ist weder ein
zweiter Radkreuzstein noch sonst ein künstlerisch verziertes (vgl.
Nr. 131, Abb. 2) oder ein ungewöhnlich großes Stück (vgl. Nr. 88 des
Verzeichnisses von 1914) dazugekommen.
 Abb. 85 Crostwitz bei Kamenz

Von Kreuzen, die mir früher entgangen waren, steht das eine am
Friedhof zu Röhrsdorf bei Meißen im waldigen Talgehänge.
(Abb. 80.) Es ist 1896 an der Kreuzung der Dorfstraße und des
Neustadt-Klipphausener Weges drei Meter tief im Boden gefunden
worden, als der Fleischer Lindner einen Abfluß für sein Schlachthaus
anlegte. Ein anderes in Form des Antoniuskreuzes steht vor dem
Gute Nr. 28 in Schrebitz bei Mügeln, Bezirk Leipzig. (Abb. 87.)
 Abb. 86 Bockwen bei Meißen a. E.
Zu den neugemeldeten Funden zählt ferner ein kleines Steinkreuz
im Pfarrgarten zu Wehlen a. E., das vor etwa zwanzig Jahren an der
alten abgebrochenen Kirche beim Umpflastern des Hofes
aufgefunden worden ist und unbeachtet dort lehnte. (Abb. 88.)
Gleichfalls persönlich konnte ich mich vom Vorhandensein eines
Steines in Gestalt des eisernen Kreuzes am obersten Ende von
Porschdorf bei Bad Schandau überzeugen (Abb. 89) und ebenso
das im Acker ausgegrabene große Kreuz an der alten Dresdner
Landstraße beim Elbtalwerk Pirna photographieren. Das letztere ist
von sachverständiger Hand mit einem neuen Unterbau ausgestattet
worden, da er abgebrochen und nicht mit zu finden war. (Abb. 90.) In
Löbau fand sich bei Aufgrabungen an der alten Kittlitzer Landstraße
in drei Meter Tiefe ein wohlerhaltenes Steinkreuz und erhielt vom
Stadtrat einen Platz am Schnittpunkt der Ziegel- und Mücklichstraße.
(Abb. 79.)

Abb. 87 Schrebitz bei Mügeln

Ausführliche Meldungen erhielt ich vom »Beatenkreuz« im
Thümmlitzwald bei Leisnig und konnte mich später selbst von
seinem guten Erhaltungszustand überzeugen. (Abb. 91.)
 Abb. 88 Stadt Wehlen

Ein weiteres Waldkreuz, dessen Inschrift nur zum Teil lesbar

erhalten ist, hatte sich bisher auf Forstabteilung 48 des Grillenburger
Forstes unweit der großen Waldwiese der Entdeckung entzogen und
wurde mir 1920 von der Forstverwaltung gemeldet. (Abb. 95 und
96.)
 Abb. 89 Porschdorf bei Bad Schandau a. E.
Auf eigentümliche Weise habe ich den Anstoß zur Entdeckung
eines Kreuzes in Markranstädt gegeben. Beim planmäßigen
Durchsuchen alter Karten und Bildersammlungen fand ich auf der
Dresdner Stadtbibliothek in Wilhelm Dilichs »Federzeichnungen
Kurfürstlicher und Meißnischer Ortschaften aus den Jahren 1626 bis
1629« Bd. III, Bl. 28 auf einer Ansicht von »Ranstädt« im
Vordergrund außerhalb der Stadt ein unverkennbares Steinkreuz mit
der Bemerkung: »Steinkreuz von Georg dem Bärtigen errichtet«.
Nach der Lage von Kirche und Rathausgiebel ließ sich der Standort
noch heute ziemlich genau bestimmen und so bat ich den Stadtrat
um Nachforschungen. Während die Stadtakten und Kirchenbücher
keine Auskunft bieten, fand sich das Steinkreuz selbst
überraschenderweise noch wohlerhalten vor; es war lediglich bei
einer Wegverbreiterung vom Feldweg nach Schkeitbar
weggenommen und in den Vorgarten eines Anliegers gesetzt
worden. Da die städtischen Bausachverständigen hierdurch auf
solche Altertümer aufmerksam geworden waren, entdeckten sie bald
darauf an anderer Stelle der Stadt noch ein zweites Kreuz.

Abb. 90 Pirna a. E. (Unterteil ergänzt)

 Mit weniger Glück folgte ich einer ähnlichen literarischen Spur in
Krimmitschau, wo eine ältere Generalstabskarte von 1880 östlich der
Stadt am Weg nach Lauenhain die Einzeichnung »Das Wetterkreuz«
trägt. Die Kirchenchronik enthält nichts darüber und auch die Suche
am Ort 1919 war vergeblich.

Abb. 91 Thümmlitzwald bei Leisnig »Beatenkreuz«

In einer Provinzzeitung fand ich 1921 die Meldung, daß der
unermüdliche Heimatforscher Professor Pfau im Rochlitzer
Schloßmuseum zwei weitere Porphyrkreuze geborgen habe, die am
eigenen Ort nicht mehr aufzustellen waren; auch im Hof des alten
Franziskanerklosters zu Meißen a. E. wurde mir ein eingelagertes
Kreuz von überraschender Größe und völlig unversehrter Erhaltung
nachgewiesen. (Abb. 92.)

Abb. 92 Meißen a. E.
Im Vogtland, wo schon vor Jahrzehnten der verstorbene Steuerrat
Trauer besonders eifrige Nachforschungen gehalten und der
Vogtländische Anzeiger in Plauen wiederholt längere Beiträge zur
Steinkreuzkunde veröffentlicht hatte, wurden seit 1914 noch
verschiedene Steinkreuze an offener Straße, darunter in
Gospersgrün, Kemnitzbachtal und Kürbitz neu festgestellt. (Abb. 98
und 99.) Das letztere, das an der Außenseite der Friedhofsmauer
eingesetzt war (Abb. 97), ist übrigens im Jahre 1923
bedauerlicherweise bei Bauarbeiten völlig verschüttet worden. Ältere
literarische Nachrichten sind dazu nirgends vorhanden und nur bei
den zwei Gospersgrünern geht die Sage vom gegenseitigen
Umbringen zweier Fleischerburschen. Bemerken möchte ich
übrigens, daß das sogenannte Schäferkreuz bei Limbach i. V. und
das Denkmal an der »Schwarzen Tafel« bei Reichenbach i. V. keine
Kreuzesform besitzen und von mir deshalb nicht aufgenommen
wurden.
Soweit es mir meine beengten persönlichen Verhältnisse
erlaubten, habe ich auch diese neuen Funde – ähnlich wie alle
zweihundertsechzig älteren Standorte – selbst besucht und
photographiert. Nur bei einigen Stücken im Vogtland und bei
Annaberg, von denen ich glaubhafte Kenntnis erhielt, bitte ich
andere wanderfreudige Helfer um Nachprüfung und Ergänzung der
heutigen Listen nach Gesteinart, Größe, Inschrift und genauem
Standort. Anderseits habe ich andere Stücke, die mir ohne jede
nähere Bezeichnung nur flüchtig genannt wurden, wie ein Kreuz
»beim Harrachsfelsen« bei Braunsdorf und ein Kreuz »in Reuth« bei
Plauen i. V., im Interesse der Genauigkeit noch gar nicht ins
Verzeichnis aufgenommen, sondern bemühe mich erst, sicheres
über ihr Vorhandensein und Aussehen zu erfahren. Die
Heimatfreunde jener Gegenden ersuche ich also freundlichst um
Unterstützung und Benachrichtigung durch Schrift und Bild.
An literarischen Funden ist für den sächsischen Bereich eine
Reihe von Sühne-Urkunden nachzutragen, die Professor Dr. Meiche
bei Besprechung meiner Arbeit von 1914 im Neuen Archiv für
Sächsische Geschichte und Altertumskunde, Bd. XL, Heft 1/2,
S. 189 ff. abgedruckt hat. Darin wird unter anderem ein Totschlag auf
dem Tharandter Walde erwähnt, bei dem Jocuff Fritzsch den Greger
Gunter von Naundorf im Jahre 1492 erschlagen hat. Da Meiche die
Urkunde und das verordnete Sühnekreuz am Tatort mit einem der
vorhandenen Steinmäler in Verbindung zu bringen sucht, so sei
bemerkt, daß »Angermanns Kreuz« auf Forstort 35 des Naundorfer
Reviers überhaupt keine Inschriftspur, sondern einen doppelten
Kreis und darüber die Zeichnung eines Spitzhammers trägt,
dagegen hängt vielleicht das neuentdeckte verstümmelte Stück an
der großen Grillenburger Waldlichtung auf Forstabteilung 48, das
Meiche noch nicht kannte (Abb. 95 u. 96), mit jener Tat zusammen.
Es ist auf der Südseite ganz mit leidlich lesbarer Schrift bedeckt, nur
fehlen davon an den abgestoßenen Kanten des Querbalkens rechts
und links stets mehrere Buchstaben. Bei verschiedenem
Sonnenstand konnte ich am Standorte selbst und später vor allen
Dingen durch genaue Betrachtung meines Negatives 13 × 18
Zentimeter, das erfahrungsgemäß eine bessere Entzifferung
gewährt, als jede positive Papierkopie, folgendes Schriftbild
zusammenstellen:
1|5|9|2|

GE EGIDII IST G
ITZSCH VON N
EIG⅁EM ALLHIER E
SSEN WORDEN
VASS VIGOTA

PAETZERPIE
IZSCH VND
HANS GVT
KEES HABEN
DIS CREVTZ
MAAL AVF

Die vier großen Zeilen, die durch Horizontallinien von den übrigen
getrennt sind, haben sich beiderseits noch auf die stark
verstümmelten Kreuzesarme hinauserstreckt, sind aber bis auf den
dritten Buchstaben der dritten Zeile, der ein D oder ein verkehrtes G
oder C darstellen soll, ganz tadellos erhalten. Dagegen erscheint die
Inschrift am Kreuzfuß unter dem zweiten Horizontalstrich stärker
verwittert. Wahrscheinlich ist das Kreuz jahrhundertelang, wie
manches andere, bis zum Querbalken im Waldboden versunken und
dem zerstörenden Einfluß der Feuchtigkeit dadurch am Unterteil
stärker ausgesetzt gewesen. Seltsamerweise erscheinen aber
innerhalb der zwei Querlinien unter und zwischen den deutlich
dastehenden vier Zeilen noch Spuren einer nahezu verwischten
Schrift von halber Buchstabengröße, so daß man vielleicht
annehmen muß, eine ältere wortreichere Inschrift sei später durch
eine größere überdeckt worden. Da die Jahreszahl 1592 zweifelsfrei
lesbar ist, so kann also dieses Kreuz oder wenigstens seine jüngere
Inschrift mit der Untat von 1492 nicht in Zusammenhang stehen,
wiewohl der Name Fritsch, wenn auch mit verwechselter Rolle, hier
wiederum vorkommt.
Gleichfalls Dr. Meiches Forschungen im Dresdner
Hauptstaatsarchiv verdanke ich die Bemerkung, daß das Kreuz von
Boritz (Nr. 16) schon 1540 urkundlich erwähnt wird. Bei der Kirche
wurden nämlich »Zinsen vom Feld unter dem steinernen Kreutz«
vereinnahmt[4].
Auch über einige verschwundene Kreuze ließen sich noch
nachträgliche Feststellungen gewinnen. Wie mir der Bürgermeister
Hackebeil von Gottleuba mitteilte, hat er zufällig in alten Akten vom
Jahre 1500 gelesen, daß ein Steinkreuz am Hellendorfer Weg einem
Bauer als Schleifstein verkauft worden sei. Das fünfte der
Königsbrücker Kreuze, das bereits zu Beginn der
Steinkreuzforschung um 1890 mit verzeichnet wurde, soll mündlicher
Auskunft zufolge im Jahre 1908 beim Bau eines Schuppens am
Krankenhaus mit vermauert worden sein.
 Abb. 93 Dippoldiswalder Heide
Das verschwundene Riesaer Kreuz Nr. 54 endlich findet sich auf
einer im Heimatmuseum Riesa aufbewahrten Zeichnung des
Rektors Bamann von 1866 abgebildet; es stand an der Ecke der
Poppitzer Straße auf dem Platze des heutigen Restaurants »Stadt
Freiberg« und ist seit längerer Zeit verlorengegangen[5].
Mit diesen Bemerkungen sei die Reihe der tatsächlichen
Aufzeichnungen geschlossen und im übrigen auf die anhängenden
Verzeichnisse I a, b und II verwiesen, in denen ich die Ergänzungen
zu meinen Listen von 1914 sowie neue Funde zusammengestellt
habe.
 An literarischen Arbeiten ist mir in letzten Jahren nur wenig Neues
über den sächsischen Steinkreuzbestand oder über allgemeine
Fragen des Steinkreuzproblems zu Gesicht gekommen. Zahlreicher
dagegen waren Einzelforschungen aus anderen deutschen Gauen,
so daß ich einige davon als vorbildlich mit im Literaturverzeichnis III
erwähnen möchte, zumal sie natürlich auch über Zweck und
Ursprung stets eine Reihe von allgemeinen Betrachtungen
enthalten.
Einen Beitrag zur badischen Steinkreuzforschung aus der Feder
von Max Walter, Ernsttal, brachten im vorigen Jahre die
Heimatblätter »Vom Bodensee zum Main[6]«. Der Verfasser geht,
ebenso wie ich, von der Ansicht aus, daß eine Klärung des
Steinkreuzproblems erst möglich ist, wenn durch örtliche Vorarbeiten
möglichst alle Fundstellen nach Zahl, Standort, Form, Gestein, Sage
und Literatur festgestellt sein werden. Demgemäß behandelt er das
Gebiet des hinteren Odenwalds, jener Dreiländerecke, die seit etwa
hundert Jahren politisch zu Baden, Hessen und Bayern gehörte und
vorher kurmainzisch war. Nicht weniger als dreiundsechzig
vorhandene und fünfzehn verschwundene Steinkreuze lassen sich
hier auf verhältnismäßig kleinem Raum feststellen. Auffällig
erscheinen die Versuche zu künstlerischer Formgebung und die
häufige Ausstattung dieser Steine mit figürlichen Zeichnungen und
Inschriften, die zum Teil auf späte Entstehung bis ins achtzehnte
Jahrhundert verweisen.
 Abb. 94 Rathendorf bei Penig
Bei den ausführlichen Deutungsversuchen lehnt Walter, genau wie
ich es für Sachsen getan habe, die Annahme von Grenz- und
Hoheitszeichen auch auf Grund der dortigen Befunde rundweg ab;
ebenso erscheint die Frage von Gerichts-, Markt- und
Wegweiserkreuzen unhaltbar. Das Schwergewicht wird auch hier auf
den Zusammenhang mit blutiger Tat, mit dem Sühnegedanken, mit
religiösem Ursprung und dem Zwecke des späteren Bildstocks oder
Martels gelegt.
Über Mord- und Sühnekreuze in den Muldenkreisen Bitterfeld,
Delitzsch usw. schreibt Emil Obst (Bitterfeld 1921) in einer
selbstverlegten Broschüre. Neben fünfzig zahlreichen alten und
neuen Denkmälern beschreibt er eigentlich nur fünf wirkliche alte
Steinkreuze und druckt zur Einleitung drei interessante Bekenntnisse
aus der Delitzscher Gerichtspflege von 1474 bis 1503, leider ohne
Quellenangabe, ab. Die kleine Schrift bringt damit einige
dankenswerte tatsächliche Ergänzungen zur Bestandsübersicht der
preußischen Provinz Sachsen und sei deshalb unter Hinweis auf
meine Karte von 1914 als Grenzgebiet erwähnt.

Abb. 95 Grillenburger Wald

Etwas größeren Umfang besitzt eine gleichfalls im Selbstverlag
1923 erschienene Schrift des Liegnitzer Landmessers Max Hellmich
über Steinerne Zeugen mittelalterlichen Rechts in Schlesien
(Steinkreuze, Bildstöcke, Staupsäulen, Galgen, Gerichtstische). Er
gibt an verschiedenen Stellen der Überzeugung Ausdruck, daß die
alten Steinkreuze, die den Hauptraum der Broschüre einnehmen,
zweifellos in Übereinstimmung mit den vielen bekannt gewordenen
Urkunden als Sühnedenkmale zu betrachten seien. Der örtliche
Sagenkranz oder die Einzelbezeichnungen, die dem gelegentlich
widersprechen, erscheinen ihm genau so wenig beweiskräftig, wie
verschiedene Inschriften neueren Ursprungs, aus denen der
Charakter des Martels oder Unfalldenkmals hervorgeht.
 Abb. 96 Schriftbild vom Grillenburger Wald-Kreuz
In besonderen Abschnitten bespricht er die Standorte, die Größe
und Gesteinsart, die Ausstattung, die Sagen und Überlieferungen,
sowie die Urkunden, deren sechs neue Beispiele abgedruckt sind.
Zwei Zusammenstellungen nach Landkreisen und alphabetischer
Folge weisen den stattlichen Bestand von fünfhunderteinundvierzig
schlesischen Steinkreuzen an vierhundertacht verschiedenen Orten,
sowie dreiundvierzig verschwundene Stücke nach.
Ortsbeschreibung, Größenmaße und Gesteinsart vervollständigen
die Listen, und dreizehn Tafeln mit einfachen Strichzeichnungen
veranschaulichen das Aussehen und die Einkerbungen von
vierhundertvierunddreißig dieser Steine.
Alles in allem verkörpert gerade diese Arbeit trotz ihres relativ
geringen Umfanges eine Unsumme von Mühe und Sammeltätigkeit
und bildet einen wertvollen abgeschlossenen Beitrag zu den
deutschen provinzialen Forschungen.

Abb. 97 Kürbitz bei Plauen i. V.

Nur nebensächlich ist von Steinkreuzen und von einzelnen

sächsischen Stücken in einem Werke des Prälaten Dr. Franz Přicryl
»Denkmale der Heiligen Konstantin (Cyrill) und Methodius in
Europa« die Rede[7]. Das deutsch geschriebene Buch ist nach
verschiedener Richtung bemerkenswert und gründet sich auf
dreißigjährige Reisen und Studien, die der geistliche Herr aus
persönlichem Interesse unternommen hat. Es ist eigentlich ein
echtes Heimatschutzwerk slawischen Inhalts mit allen Vorzügen und
allen Schwächen einer fleißigen Dilettantenarbeit. Dagegen muß die
Darstellung hinsichtlich ihrer wissenschaftlichen Geltung mit
Vorbehalt behandelt werden und erfordert eine besonders kritische
Betrachtung, weil ihr Verfasser, als Diener der orthodoxen Kirche
durch das Dogma des Glaubens von vornherein in seinem freien
Urteil über die Geschehnisse stark beengt erscheint und mit seinen
Schilderungen offensichtlich eine Verherrlichung slawischer
Kulturanfänge verfolgt.

Phot. K. Sippel, Plauen i. V.

Abb. 98 Gospersgrün bei Plauen i. V.