Synopses & Reviews
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.
Review
This volume indicates the nature of political reform and protest that have accompanied China's rapid economic development of recent years. In 12 chapters, 14 social scientists from North America, Hong Kong, and China report on a variety of grassroots efforts designed to restrain arbitrary and corrupt official behavior, and to make local government officials more accountable to the public. Based on fieldwork conducted throughout China, the scholars examine cases of village and township elections, fiscal problems of local government, traditional local social institutions, homeowners' groups, legal aid, labor, and environmental protest, as well as opportunities and limitations on media reporting of official behavior...The volume provides fascinating material on the dynamics of grassroots protests, and is an able companion to Kevin J. O'Brien and Linjiang Li's Rightful Resistance in Rural China. G.A. McBeath
Review
Elizabeth Perry and Merle Goldman's new edited volume on grassroots political reform offers a wide-ranging look at local-level governance issues in China today. The collection's clear strengths are both its scope and the strong empirical work of its contributors. The individual chapters attest to extensive field research, where impressive research access has enabled innovative and careful research designs, yielding new and provocative insights into local politics change in China today. Choice
About the Author
Elizabeth J. Perry is Henry Rosovsky Professor of Government at Harvard University and Director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute.Merle Goldman is Professor of History, Emerita, at Boston University and Associate of the John K. Fairbank Center for East Asian Research, Harvard University.
Boston University and Harvard University
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations
1. Introduction: Historical Reflections on Grassroots Political Reform in China
Elizabeth J. Perry and Merle Goldman
2. Village Elections, Transparency, and Anticorruption:
Henan and Guangdong Provinces
Richard Levy
3. The Implementation of Village Elections and
Tax-for-Fee Reform in Rural Northwest China
John James Kennedy
4. Fiscal Crisis in China's Townships: Causes and Consequences
Jean C. Oi and Zhao Shukai
5. Direct Township Elections
Lianjiang Li
6. The Struggle for Village Public Goods Provision:
Informal Institutions of Accountability in Rural China
Lily L. Tsai
7. Inadvertent Political Reform via Private Associations:
Assessing Homeowners' Groups in New Neighborhoods
Benjamin L. Read
8. Civil Resistance and Rule of Law in China:
The Defense of Homeowners' Rights
Yongshun Cai
9. "Hope for Protection and Hopeless Choices":
Labor Legal Aid in the PRC
Mary E. Gallagher
10. Is Labor a Political Force in China?
Ching Kwan Lee
11. Between Defiance and Obedience:
Protest Opportunism in China
Xi Chen
12. In Search of the Grassroots:
Hydroelectric Politics in Northwest Yunnan
Ralph Litzinger
13. Public Opinion Supervision:
Possibilities and Limits of the Media in Constraining Local Officials
Yuezhi Zhao and Sun Wusan
Notes Contributors Acknowledgments