Bøger i Challenges Facing Chinese Political Development serien

In Remodeling Democracy, Zhongyuan Wang argues that the Chinese Communist Party uses formal democratic institutions to sustain its rule. These institutions combined with the Party's leadership and the rule of law form a "socialist democracy" that serves as an alternative to liberal democracy.

This book examines the new equity-enhancing politics in China in the context of Chinese traditional cognitive patterns of political legitimacy and its implication for Chinese political development in the near future. Based on an analysis of the new governing philosophy, the generation of political elite, and a new set of public policies, the book reaffirms the emergence of a new Chinese polity that infuses one-party rule with limited electoral and deliberative democracies.Unlike many scholars who perceive the contemporary Chinese history as a constant search for democracy, this book takes a very different approach. It asserts that the enduring question in political development in China today is no different from what was sought after throughout Chinese history, namely, the constant search for political legitimacy. Even though the quest for democracy is instrumental to that end, it may not ultimately lead to the embrace of a full-fledged liberal democracy. The new politics is not only a rationalization of the efficiency-based development, but also a major paradigm shift in China's developmental strategy.

More than thirty years ago the political turn that brought the dismantling of agricultural collectives and exclusive rights to small plots of farmland for rural families initiated a historic return to smallholding in the People's Republic of China. Today, agriculture in China is changing again. In many villages smallholder farming is giving way to large agricultural enterprises. This book explores this latest transformation of Chinese agriculture. It traces how the peasantry's frustration with the farming conditions, the priorities of national and local political agents and the changes in the management of collective land since the return to family-based farming have paved the way for a unique Chinese agrarian transition. The argument is based on careful analysis of agricultural politics since the early 1980s and data gathered in three field trips to Shandong, Sichuan, and Guizhou Provinces between 2008 and 2010. The findings highlight the importance of institutional path-dependencies and strategic government intervention (or its absence) for economic transformation. China's Agrarian Transition is one of the first comprehensive accounts of the latest developments in agriculture in the People's Republic and will provide a stimulating read for political scientists, sociologists, economists, and experts on China interested in the ongoing transformation of China's countryside.

This book looks at the relationship between Chinese international relations (IR) scholarship and China's rise as a world power. Specifically, it addresses how China's rising international status since the early 1990s has shaped the country's IR studies, and the different ways that Chinese IR scholars are interpreting that rise. The author argues that the development of IR studies in China has been influenced by China's past historical experiences, its recent change in status in world politics, and indigenous scholarly interpretations of both factors. Instead of treating Chinese IR scholars as value-free social scientists, the author shows how Chinese scholarsas purposive, strategic, and emotional actorstend to manipulate existing (mostly Western) IR theories to support their policy propositions and identity statements. This book represents one of few efforts to determine how local Chinese scholars are constructing IR knowledge, how they are dealing with intersections between indigenous Chinese and imported IR theory and concepts, and how Chinese scholars are analyzing ';their China' in terms of its current rise to power.

This monograph ties in the scholarly debate on Chinese village elections and their consequences for China's political system. It draws on comparative fieldwork conducted in six villages in two counties in Jiangxi and Jilin Provinces and one district in Shenzhen between 2002 and 2005, producing data from some 140 in-depth interviews of villagers and local officials up to the prefectural level. The major objective of this book is as much a critical assessment of the research literature of Chinese village elections published over the last fifteen years as to sharpen the reader's sight for the scope and limits of this important reform to generate regime legitimacy in the local state, an issue which has so far been neglected in the study of Chinese village elections. It hence contributes to our understanding of the nexus between political participation and cadre accountability at the grassroots, and highlights a number of factors ensuring the persistence of one-party rule in contemporary China.

In its propaganda, the Chinese Communist Party does not deny the value of ';democracy', but it insists that democracy in China can be only ';socialist democracy with Chinese characteristics'. The most essential nature of such ';democracy' is that it is under the single-party system and it excludes multi-party politics and competitive elections. In recent years, ';Chinese democracy' has won more support because of achievements the party has made in developing economy. This raises a question: does this ';efficient' authoritarian political system in China, even if it is not democratic, deserve applause because it can facilitate economic development? The party also insists that it is ';democratic'. But, is the partys theory of ';democracy' compatible with western democracy?Since 1998, the party has organized some political reforms, such as ';direct elections' for township executives, ';direct elections' for township party secretaries, township party congress reform and ';deliberative democracy' experiments, while maintaining single-party politics. In the partys propaganda, some of these reforms have become party achievements in improving ';socialist democracy with Chinese characteristics'. In addition to these four kinds of party-organized reforms, another ';reform' originated from the grassroots, the participation of independent candidates in a few local peoples congress elections. This book examines these five local political reforms. It demonstrates that the four reforms instigated and organized by the party were tightly controlled and manipulated by the party. Although some reform measures may possibly liberalize parts of Chinas political mechanism, it is highly unlikely that the four reforms will eventually lead to political democratization in China. In the fifth ';reform', which was motivated from outside the bureaucratic system, the party took drastic measures to repress the political participation of grassroots power. As a result, nearly all independent candidates in the local peoples congress elections failed in their attempts to gain office. The prospects for this ';reform' are also poor. The book argues that all five reforms have failed and that none will lead to China's democratization in the near future. The book concludes that the party's authoritarian regime in China is by nature anti-democratic and that so-called ';socialist democracy with Chinese characteristics' is not democratic.

This book combines empirical research and theoretical discussions to demonstrate that the civil society paradigm as a western concept could be applicable to the study of state-society relations in contemporary China. However, the growth of Chinese civil society does not necessarily present an adversarial or confrontational relationship between state and society, but rather it is a cooperative relationship based on common interests and mutual benefits between industrial associations and local governments. The findings of this research confirm that, in contrast to the conventional civil society model in Western and Eastern Europe, where civic organizations are independent of the state, challenging the state hegemony, Chinese civic organizations, however, still lack autonomy and even remain closely linked to the state, but they are growing and expanding their public space and important role in public affairs through active participation. This non-western path for civil society development is a precise reflection of reality that is profoundly shaped and constrained by Chinese institutional, sociological, and cultural context. Through close investigation into the industrial, organizational, and social governance of industrial associations in Wenzhou and in-depth analysis of their challenges and developments within the institutional context, this book provides fresh empirical evidence and insightful analysis of how industrial associations have actively participated in local industrial governance and conduct of public affairs, gained greater space for their development, and become indispensable partners of local government in social governance.

This book presents a comprehensive assessment of China's economic statecraft and its challenges. The contributors explore the various factors and dynamics that determine the effectiveness of China's efforts to turn its wealth into global power.

This edited volume undertakes a critical, theory-guided evaluation of reform policies and institutional change under Xi Jinping. Based on the empirical observations and findings, it proposes a fine-tuning of research frames to assess the multidimensional dynamics of governance recalibrations and the interplay between ideas and policy innovation.

This volume theorizes the concept of citizenship in contemporary China by probing into the formation of Chinese citizenship and synthesizing the practices of citizenship by different social groups.

Discussion of the "Chinese Model" abounds with the rise of China. This volume analyzes the Chinese case in a theoretical framework, provides an evolutionary perspective, and compares it with other models of development.

China is a multiethnic country with vast territory, a land of diverse ecosystems. With the drive for industrialization in China and the implementation of ''western grand development'' strategy in western regions, both governments and people face great challenges in environmental protection and sustainable use of biodiversity resources as a result of growing interaction between human activities and natural environment. To meet the challenges, governments in these regions need to adopt a series of important policy measures, not only to reduce industrial emissions, but also to return farmland to forests and pasture to grasslands and to implement measures of ecological migration to reduce human activities in ecological conservation areas. In this regard, China must not only learn profound lessons from industrialized countries but also search for international cooperation. The United States provides some good comparative case studies on the environmental protection, grassroots environmental management, and conservation policies in western regions This book attempts to address key questions about Chinese and U.S. environmental policies by looking at historical development of environmental protection and current environmental policy in the western regions of the two countries.

Toward Better Governance in China takes a fresh look at the latest efforts made by Chinese leaders to promote governance-based reform. It asserts that the improvement of governance has now become one of the breakthrough points of the much anticipated political reform. Although the Chinese government continues to play down expectations about political reform, many small-scale reform experiments have been quietly undertaken by Chinese leaders at various levels in recent years, including the new round of administrative reform centered on the creation of "super ministries," the enlargement of inner-party democracy within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the strengthening of local legislative bodies, and judicial reform designed to promote judicial independence and rule of law. This strategy calls for strengthening governing capacity and changing government functions. One of the advantages in placing the improvement of governance first is that it is less risky than embarking upon a full-scaled electoral reform. Electoral democracy is undoubtedly an important element in a functional democracy. But equally important is the effectiveness, transparency, accountability, and openness of the governing process. Better governance implies greater transparency, open deliberation and participation, and less adversarial political confrontation and conflict. If constructed properly, China may become the sort of democratic administration or administrative democracy that Robert Dahl discussed in 1947. Clearly, political reform of this kind does not follow the conventional wisdom of a democratic transition which places heavy emphasis on electoral reform or the precedence of the electoral reform to the government reform. This book is intended to shed some new light on the ongoing debate about the direction of China''s political development.

''Harmonious World'' and China''s New Foreign Policy consists of essays by China specialists on the Chinese government''s characterization of foreign policy as a ''harmonious world.'' The essays deal with such topics as ''harmonious world'' and China''s new diplomacy, China''s multilateral diplomacy after the Cold War, China''s changing image of and engagement with the world order, China''s energy security diplomacy, and China''s trade diplomacy. These insightful contributions will help students in this academic field understand the new concepts and programs adopted by the Chinese new leadership and their important implications for China''s new foreign policy behavior in the years to come.

Dynamics of Local Governance in China during the Reform takes a close look at China's current transformation and its broader implications. Through their thought-provoking essays, the contributors to this volume dissect China's transformation by examining various topics in the field of contemporary China studies, such as rural industrialization, development of civic society, socio-economic transformation and local self-governance.

The concept peaceful development has become the new thinking in Chinese foreign policy under the fourth-generation leadership. But what are the new dimensions of Chinese foreign policy and how do they impact China's foreign relations? This volume helps you understand the new dimensions of Chinese foreign policy and their implications.

This book is about how rural China is organized. Based on extensive fieldwork the authors present examples of both top-down and bottom-up social organizing and analyse the interplay between external and local actors.

Taiwan and the Rise of China examines one of the fast evolving, yet very volatile, fragile and asymmetric, bilateral relations in East Asia. The insightful analyses provided by the experts of China studies should be of great interest to scholars, students and policy makers.

The Chinese Labyrinth is a multifaceted survey of the Chinese developmental model based on theoretical and empirical evidence, combined with in-depth analyses of unique political and social innovations or system of governance at various levels. This book is also a provocative study of the challenges derived from the Chinese experience to the conventional theory of political development.

Greater China in an Era of Globalization examines China's rise, its role in the greater China region, and its influence in other regions of the world. It also analyzes the idea of "Chinese globalization" and its significant implications for the world.

Examining the challenges of Chinese political development from a holistic perspective, each of the authors emphasizes a particular dimension of political culture, political economy, foreign policy, and environmental and social challenges.

This book examines structural factors, ideas, institutions, issues, and challenges that have shaped China-U.S. relations in the past thirty years, as well as the recent changes in the global geostrategic landscape and economic interdependence that have significant impacts on the bilateral relations into the 21st century.

This co-edited book focuses on China's increasing engagement with many of the less developed countries-particularly those in Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East-and explores the current and future trends in Beijing's foreign relations.

Examining the challenges of Chinese political development from a holistic perspective, each of the authors emphasizes a particular dimension of political culture, political economy, foreign policy, and environmental and social challenges.

Online Chinese Nationalism and China's Bilateral Relations covers a new topic of interest to scholars and students studying Chinese politics and society, Chinese diplomacy, and e-politics by looking at the interaction between online nationalism and the bilateral relations between China and various parts of the world.

This edited volume examines the new concept of 'building harmonious society' proposed by the Chinese leadership under Hu Jintao, its important implications for the future of Chinese political development, and some major issues and questions in China's academic and public debate on the search for a harmonious society.

The book presents the views of leading Chinese and American scholars working in the fields of Chinese foreign policy, national security and international political economy. It seeks to challenge the conventional wisdom about China's recent rise, contending it is a much more complex and contested trend than it has often been portrayed to be.