Product Description: What, if anything, is similar about citizen participation at the local level in Canada and China? The answer, of course, is politically sensitive. There are many in Canada who would claim that the question is absurd. How can there be meaningful citizen participation in a country where there are significant restrictions on political activity, including on the right to form organizations with political purposes? Presenting the work of leading scholars, Citizen Participation at the Local Level in China and Canada examines how citizens in each country participate at the local level...read more

Product Description: This unique book offers the readers a ring-side seat to watch the drama of Chinese politics as it is experienced by the players themselves. It provides an opportunity for non-Chinese readers to get a feel of the intricacies of contemporary Chinese politics as they are played out in real-life situations...read more

Product Description: This unique volume takes a very different approach to township or xiangzhen governance. It explores the structural constraints on township governance and the way that these constraints influence the day-to-day behavior of Chinese rural grassroots government leaders...read more

Product Description: In the 1990s China embarked on a series of political reforms intended to increase, however modestly, political participation to reduce the abuse of power by local officials. Although there was initial progress, these reforms have largely stalled and, in many cases, gone backward...read more

Product Description: 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...read more