Local Government and Politics in China: Challenges from below: Challenges from below

This book is a study of local government and politics in the People's Republic of China at the county and township levels, focusing on policy implementation and institutional arrangements. Relying on interviews with government officials in various municipalities and a review of county records and other government documents, the author describes in detail the party and governmental structures at the county and township levels. The book examines, among other things, the impact of the Chinese cadre system on the behavior of local officials, local party and government structure, relationships between various levels of Chinese local government, policy supervision mechanisms at local levels, and village governance in China. Local government at the county and township levels is rarely studied systematically as an independent subject. Economic reform and decentralization in the past decade have brought about significant changes in local government and politics. The politics at these levels have their own dynamics and can be quite different from the politics at the central or provincial level. Book jacket.

Yang Zhong is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Tennessee, and President of the Association of Chinese Political Studies (USA)