You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
Can meaningful representation emerge in an authoritarian setting? If so, how, when, and why? Making Autocracy Work identifies the trade-offs associated with representation in authoritarian environments and then tests the theory through a detailed inquiry into the dynamics of China's National People's Congress (NPC, the country's highest formal government institution). Rory Truex argues that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is engineering a system of 'representation within bounds' in the NPC, encouraging deputies to reflect the needs of their constituents, but only for non-sensitive issues. This allows the regime to address citizen grievances while avoiding incendiary political activism. Data on NPC deputy backgrounds and behaviors is used to explore the nature of representation and incentives in this constrained system. The book challenges existing conceptions of representation, authoritarianism, and the future of the Chinese state. Consultative institutions like the NPC are key to making autocracy work.
Civil society groups can strengthen an autocratic state's coercive capacity, helping to suppress dissent and implement far-reaching policies.
The apparent contradiction between China's rapid economic reforms and political authoritarianism is much debated by scholars of comparative political economy. This is the first examination of this issue through the impact of a series of administrative reforms intended to promote government transparency and increase public participation in China.
This book studies representation in Chinese local congresses, drawing on qualitative fieldwork and quantitative surveys of congressmen and women.
"Retrofitting Leninism explores the relationship between political inclusion and political control through the lens of participatory governance in the People's Republic of China. The book can be condensed into three key points. First, public participation is a prerequisite for effective administration, irrespective of how a regime is constituted. Second, a regime's ability to solicit, process, and recast public input into policy outputs is central to its political durability. Third, technological advances in communication make it easier for authoritarian regimes, particularly those with Leninist foundations, to correspond with the public and thus undercut calls for genuine democratic progres...
In this book leading economists evaluate how the world can best spend money to combat the world's biggest problems.
Curating Revolution examines how Mao-era exhibitions shaped popular understandings of, and participation in, the political campaigns of China's Communist revolution.
Authoritarianism seems to be everywhere in the political world—even the definition of authoritarianism as any form of non-democratic governance has grown very broad. Attempts to explain authoritarian rule as a function of the interests or needs of the ruler or regime can be misleading. Autocrats Can’t Always Get What They Want argues that to understand how authoritarian systems work we need to look not only at the interests and intentions of those at the top, but also at the inner workings of the various parts of the state. Courts, elections, security force structure, and intelligence gathering are seen as structured and geared toward helping maintain the regime. Yet authoritarian regime...
Contemporary Chinese Politics: Sources, Methods, and Field Strategies considers how new and diverse sources and methods are changing the study of Chinese politics. Contributors spanning three generations in China studies place their distinct qualitative and quantitative methodological approaches in the framework of the discipline and point to challenges or opportunities (or both) of adapting new sources and methods to the study of contemporary China. How can we more effectively use new sources and methods of data collection? How can we better integrate the study of Chinese politics into the discipline of political science, to the betterment of both? This comprehensive methodological survey will be of immense interest to graduate students heading into the field for the first time and experienced scholars looking to keep abreast of the state of the art in the study of Chinese politics.
Claws of the Panda tells the story of Canada’s failure to construct a workable policy towards the People’s Republic of China. In particular, the book tells of Ottawa’s failure to recognize and confront the efforts by the Chinese Communist Party to infiltrate and influence Canadian institutions and to exert control over Canadians of Chinese heritage. It shows how Canadian leaders have constantly misjudged the reality of the relationship while the CCP and its agents have benefited from Canadian naivete. The Expanded and Updated edition of Claws of the Panda arrives at a crucial point as Canada’s delusions abouts its friendly relations with the CCP have fallen apart since the book’s initial publication. This edition sets out to uncover Ottawa’s relationship with Beijing in light of the CCP regime’s increasingly suspicious and belligerent relations with the US and Europe. The age of a distinctly Canadian bilateral relationship with Beijing is over.