Grassroots Political Reform in Contemporary China
Grassroots Political Reform in Contemporary China

Author: Elizabeth J. Perry

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2009-07-01

Total Pages: 415

ISBN-13: 0674042050

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Observers often note the glaring contrast between China's stunning economic progress and stalled political reforms. Although sustained growth in GNP has not brought democratization at the national level, this does not mean that the Chinese political system has remained unchanged. At the grassroots level, a number of important reforms have been implemented in the last two decades. This volume, written by scholars who have undertaken substantial fieldwork in China, explores a range of grassroots efforts--initiated by the state and society alike--intended to restrain arbitrary and corrupt official behavior and enhance the accountability of local authorities. Topics include village and township elections, fiscal reforms, legal aid, media supervision, informal associations, and popular protests. While the authors offer varying assessments of the larger significance of these developments, their case studies point to a more dynamic Chinese political system than is often acknowledged. When placed in historical context--as in the Introduction--we see that reforms in local governance are hardly a new feature of Chinese political statecraft and that the future of these experiments is anything but certain.

Grassroots Elections in China
Grassroots Elections in China

Author: Kevin J. O'Brien

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-07-22

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 1317987217

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Twenty years after the launch of village elections, the time is ripe to assess the progress and impact of China’s most notable political reform. Where have elections been conducted well and where have they been conducted poorly? How have procedures changed over the years and have elections truly transformed how power is exercised in the countryside? What methods are researchers employing to study elections and how have scholars from different disciplines contributed to our knowledge of grassroots politics in China? This book carefully examines the implementation and effects of China’s village, township, and people’s congress elections, both in terms of democratizing the polity and spurring other changes in state-society relations. The chapters in this book have been published across several issues of the Journal of Contemporary China.

China in Transition
China in Transition

Author: D. Teather

Publisher: Springer

Published: 1999-03-02

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 0333983823

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The authors focus on the important, controversial issues and policies of contemporary China. These include new intellectual currents and re-assessment of socialism in the PRC, grassroots political participation in rural China, public maladministration and bureaucratic corruption, and legal reform.

Ballot Box China
Ballot Box China

Author: Kerry Brown

Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.

Published: 2011-04-14

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 1848138229

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Since 1988, China has undergone one of the largest, but least understood experiments in grassroots democracy. Across 600,000 villages in China, with almost a million elections, some three million officials have been elected. The Chinese government believes that this is a step towards `democracy with Chinese characteristics'. But to many involved in them, the elections have been mired by corruption, vote-rigging and cronyism. This book looks at the history of these elections, how they arose, what they have achieved and where they might be going, exploring the specific experience of elections by those who have taken part in them - the villagers in some of the most deprived areas of China.

The Logic and Limits of Political Reform in China
The Logic and Limits of Political Reform in China

Author: Joseph Fewsmith

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2013-02-18

Total Pages: 233

ISBN-13: 1139620428

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In the 1990s China embarked on a series of political reforms intended to increase, however modestly, political participation to reduce the abuse of power by local officials. Although there was initial progress, these reforms have largely stalled and, in many cases, gone backward. If there were sufficient incentives to inaugurate reform, why wasn't there enough momentum to continue and deepen them? This book approaches this question by looking at a number of promising reforms, understanding the incentives of officials at different levels, and the way the Chinese Communist Party operates at the local level. The short answer is that the sort of reforms necessary to make local officials more responsible to the citizens they govern cut too deeply into the organizational structure of the party.

Muddling Toward Democracy
Muddling Toward Democracy

Author: Anne F. Thurston

Publisher:

Published: 2000-07

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780756700478

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Among the most significant political reforms implemented by the Chinese government since 1989 is the introduction of competitive elections into rural villages. This study examines China's efforts to bring competitive elections to the country's rural areas & attempts to explain why local democracy has proved more successful in some places than in others. The study also attempts to reintroduce China-as-China into public dialogue. Chapters: rural Sichuan Province, Nov. 1995; the roots of political reform in China's villages; the varieties of village self-governance; the requisites for success; & the U. S. response to Chinese political reform.

Chinese Democracy after Tiananmen
Chinese Democracy after Tiananmen

Author: Yijiang Ding

Publisher: UBC Press

Published: 2011-11-01

Total Pages: 185

ISBN-13: 0774842105

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In 1989, most observers believed that China's political reform process had been violently short-circuited, but few would now dispute that China is in a very important transition. Central to this transition has been an extraordinary change in the formal intellectual conception of 'democracy.' In this book, Yijiang Ding presents a multi-dimensional picture of China at the political crossroads. Chinese Democracy looks at the significant change in the state-society relationship in contemporary China in three interrelated areas: intellectual, social, and cultural. Drawing heavily on recent Chinese scholarship, Ding shows that the emergent theory on the dualism of state and society is contemporaneous with a new cognitive and cultural appreciation of the people's independence from state authority. Is China moving toward liberal democracy? Does Western engagement with China contribute economically and politically to this shift? These are the questions at the heart of the book. Which are especially timely, given the recent reconstruction of political regimes worldwide.

Debating Regime Legitimacy in Contemporary China
Debating Regime Legitimacy in Contemporary China

Author: Suisheng Zhao

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-10-11

Total Pages: 354

ISBN-13: 1351972146

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This comprehensive volume is a three-part study of whether the Chinese political system has maintained a significant degree of regime legitimacy in the context of rising domestic discontent, in particular the popular protests against socio-economic inequality and environment degradation. Part I presents the scholarly debate on the theoretical refinement and empirical measurement of regime legitimacy in contemporary China. Part II focuses on the challenges to regime legitimacy of the increasingly widespread popular protests and civil activism. Part III examines the regime’s responses to these challenges, including coercive repression, adaptation, and economic performance. This book finds that, while repression can hardly stop popular protests – and often backfires – economic performance legitimacy is increasingly difficult to be maintained. The only way out is the adaptation to the changing domestic and international environment. The chapters in this collection were originally published in the Journal of Contemporary China.