To Govern China

Evolving Practices of Power

Vivienne Shue,Patricia M. Thornton

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781108153584
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Global Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

How, practically speaking, is the Chinese polity - as immense and fissured as it has now become - actually being governed today? Some analysts highlight signs of 'progress' in the direction of more liberal, open, and responsive rule. Others dwell instead on the many remaining 'obstacles' to a hoped-for democratic transition. Drawing together cutting-edge research from an international panel of experts, this volume argues that both those approaches rest upon too starkly drawn distinctions between democratic and non-democratic 'regime types', and concentrate too narrowly on institutions as opposed to practices. The prevailing analytical focus on adaptive and resilient authoritarianism - a neo-institutionalist concept - fails to capture what are often cross-cutting currents in ongoing processes of political change. Illuminating a vibrant repertoire of power practices employed in governing China today, these authors advance instead a more fluid, open-ended conceptual approach that privileges nimbleness, mutability, and receptivity to institutional and procedural invention and evolution.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Contributors
• Introduction: Beyond Implicit Political Dichotomies and Linear Models of Change in China
• I Leadership Practices
• II People’s Government
• III Expedients of the Local State: Bargains and Deals
• IV Governance of the Individual and Techniques of the Self
• Index