This volume is a selection of Chinese political scholar Xianglin Xu's published works spanning nearly 20 years of research that explore and discuss the socio-economic transition in China under state political reform. Contextualized within the decades following the 80s, the author analyzes patterns observed from empirical studies, and breaks down the underlining reasoning, conditions and functionalities behind the incremental reform policies pushed forward by the Party and government.

The collection is broken up into four sections: the first provides a general framework and theoretical / historical introduction to social transition research in the case of China; the second section discusses the underpinning logic behind political reform in China and practical concerns; the third section follows with discussions on reform policy practices within China including application and trajectory; the final section concludes with an analysis of reform within state institutional infrastructure and policy innovation.

Autorentext
Xu Xianglin, a professor, Ph.D supervisor and vice president in School of Government of Peking University. He was born in 1955 in Xiangxiang City, Hunan Province. In 1982, he received his Bachelor's Degree in Laws from the School of International Studies of Peking University and became a teacher there. In 1987, he went to study in University of California, Irvine, under the supervision of David Easton, an American expert in Politics, and received his Doctorate in Politics in 1995. He took on teaching in Peking University in 1996, gave lectures like Politics and Government Process in China, Chinese Political and Economic System Reform, Analysis of Public Policy, etc. His research mainly focus on Comparative Politics, Chinese government and politics, and public policy.

Inhalt
Chapter 1Transformation Crises and Adaptive Governance in China: A Historical Comparative Perspective.- Chapter 2: From Political Development Theory to Policy Process Theory.- Chapter 3: China's Incremental Political Reform Based on Political Stability.- Chapter 4: Political Reform Policy: Goal-Setting and the Choice of the Tactics.- Chapter 5: Orientation of the Political System Reform and Policy Choice After the 18th National People's Congress of the CPC.- Chapter 6: The Rise of Technocrats: Bureaucratic Elite Transformation in Post-Mao China.- Chapter 7: Experimental Reform of Grassroots Democracy Under the Party-controlled Cadre System.- Chapter 8: Village Governance in China under the Complexities of the Three Rural Issues.- Chapter 9: Theoretical Misunderstandings and Space for the Development of NGOs.- Chapter 10: The Relationship Between Government and Enterprises in the Reform of State-owned Enterprises.- Chapter 11: Institutional Restriction and System Innovation in the Reform of the Administrative Examination and Approval System.- Chapter 12 Structural Restraints and Institutional Innovation in Local Governance.