Grassroots Political Reform in Contemporary China

Elizabeth J. Perry, Merle Goldman, Elizabeth J. Perry, Merle Goldman, Elizabeth J Perry

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN:
  9780674024861
  9780674024854
• eBook ISBN:
  9780674042056
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Chinese History
• Index: History

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.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• List of Abbreviations
• 1. Introduction: Historical Reflections on Grassroots Political Reform in China
• 2. Village Elections, Transparency,and Anticorruption: Henan and Guangdong Provinces
• 3. The Implementation of Village Elections andTax-for-Fee Reform in Rural Northwest China
• 4. Fiscal Crisis in China’s Townships:Causes and Consequences
• 5. Direct Township Elections
• 6. The Struggle for Village Public Goods Provision: Informal Institutions of Accountability in Rural China
• 7. Inadvertent Political Reform via Private Associations: Assessing Homeowners’ Groups in New Neighborhoods
• 8. Civil Resistance and Rule of Law in China:The Defense of Homeowners’ Rights
• 9. “Hope for Protection and Hopeless Choices”:Labor Legal Aid in the PRC
• 10. Is Labor a Political Force in China?
• 11. Between Defiance and Obedience:Protest Opportunism in China
• 12. In Search of the Grassroots: Hydroelectric Politics in Northwest Yunnan
• 13. Public Opinion Supervision: Possibilities and Limits of the Media in Constraining Local Officials
• Notes
• Contributors