China's Governance Model by Hongyi Lai

China's Governance Model by Hongyi Lai

Many studies of government in China either simply describe the political institutions or else focus, critically, on the weaknesses of the system, such as corruption or the absence of Western-style democracy. Authors of these studies fail to appreciate the surprising ability of China’s government to rapidly transform a once impoverished economy and to recover from numerous crises from 1978 to the present. This book, on the other hand, takes a more balanced, more positive view. This view is based on a study of changes in China’s institutions for coping with critical crises in governance since 1978. These changes include better management of leadership succession, better crisis management, improved social welfare, the management of society through treating different social groups differently depending on their potential to rival the Party state, and a variety of limited, intra-party and grassroots democracy. This book applies to the Chinese model the term “pragmatic authoritarianism.” It explains changes to and the likely future direction of China’s governance model. It compares current risks in China’s governance with threats that terminated dynasties and the republic in China over the past four thousand years and concludes that the regime can be expected to survive a considerable period despite its existing flaws. "Few topics in Chinese politics are as significant as the nature, state and prospects of the political regime. While the topic had been unduly understudied for a long period of time, a young generation of scholars has emerged on this subject. Among others, the book by Hongyi Lai stands out and provides a comprehensive and penetrating analysis on this topic....I am confident that his book will make a significant contribution to the study of Chinese politics and may well define the debate on China’s political development, governance and model for years to come." - Yongnian Zheng, Director, East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore

"Hongyi Lai provides a comprehensive interpretation of Chinese and Western scholarship about “the China model” This book begins with an extended review of literature, and Lai’s summary will be useful to anyone wanting an overview of current Western-based writings about Chinese politics as well as writings from a Chinese viewpoint. (...) Hongyi Lai has provided a useful, coherent overview of adaptive authoritarian governance in China."

- Lynn T. White III, University of California, Berkeley, and Princeton University

Hongyi Lai is an Associate Professor in the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies and a Senior Fellow of the China Policy Institute at the University of Nottingham, UK.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780415734479
ISBN 10	0415734479
Title	China's Governance Model
Author	Hongyi Lai
Series	China Policy Series
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Routledge
Year published	2016-06-20
Number of pages	364
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable