Elites and Governance in China

This book reveals the complex relationship between elite perceptions and behaviour, and governance, in China. It moves away from existing scholarship by focusing on functionaries, grass-roots elites, leading intellectuals, and opinion-makers in China and by looking beyond the top leadership, makes a significant contribution to our understanding of shared governance and broadened political participation in China.

The chapters in this collection explore the elites' role as opinion-makers, technical experts, producers of knowledge, and executives or managers, and pose a number of questions, the answers to which are crucial to understanding future political and economic development in China. What are elite perceptions of governance, inequality and justice; what do the elites mean by good governance; what is the influence of non-Chinese Communist Party elites in policy-making and implementation in China; how have they exerted their influence in the PRC and influenced its direction of future development; and what have grass-roots elites contributed to governance in local communities?

Providing a keen insight into the role elites have played in governing China since 1978, this book is a pioneering effort to bring together elite studies and governance studies. As such, it will be highly relevant for policy-makers within international organizations, governments, and NGOs outside China as well as appealing to scholars and students interested in Chinese politics and governance.

Auteur

Xiaowei Zang is Professor and Head of the School of East Asian Studies at the University of Sheffield, UK.

Chien-wen Kou is Professor in the Department of Political Science and Director of the Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies, National Chengchi University, Taiwan.

Contenu

1. Elites and Governance in China, Xiaowei Zang and Chien-wen Kou
   2. Discourses of Justice and Class: Impact of China's Intellectual Elites on Social Policy, Yingjie Gao
      3. The Role of Intellectual Elites in China's Political Reform: The Discourse of Governance, Yingjie Gao
         4. Moving between the "Inner Circle" and the "Outer Circle"- Think Tanks and Policymaking in China, Quanshen Zhao
            5. Elites and the Transformation of China's Built Environment, David Bray
               6. Community Governance and Elite Activism in Urban China, Chunrong Liu
                  7. Intermediate Associations, Grassroots Elites and Collective Petitions in Rural China, Mingxing Liu and Yu Tao
                     8. Information Collection and Anti-corruption in China, Yongshun Cai