Grassroots Political Reform in Contemporary China

Edited by Elizabeth J. Perry

Edited by Merle Goldman

    This volume indicates the nature of political reform and protest that have accompanied China’s rapid economic development of recent years. In 12 chapters, 14 social scientists from North America, Hong Kong, and China report on a variety of grassroots efforts designed to restrain arbitrary and corrupt official behavior, and to make local government officials more accountable to the public. Based on fieldwork conducted throughout China, the scholars examine cases of village and township elections, fiscal problems of local government, traditional local social institutions, homeowners’ groups, legal aid, labor, and environmental protest, as well as opportunities and limitations on media reporting of official behavior...The volume provides fascinating material on the dynamics of grassroots protests, and is an able companion to Kevin J. O’Brien and Linjiang Li’s Rightful Resistance in Rural China.
       --G.A. McBeath, Choice

    Elizabeth Perry and Merle Goldman’s new edited volume on grassroots political reform offers a wide-ranging look at local-level governance issues in China today. The collection’s clear strengths are both its scope and the strong empirical work of its contributors. The individual chapters attest to extensive field research, where impressive research access has enabled innovative and careful research designs, yielding new and provocative insights into local politics change in China today.
       --Amy Hanser, Pacific Affairs

  • Cover: Grassroots Political Reform in Contemporary China
  • A photo of the author

photo of Merle Goldman

Elizabeth J. Perry is Henry Rosovsky Professor of Government at Harvard University. She is the author of Challenging the Mandate of Heaven: Social Protest and State Power in China.

Merle Goldman is Professor of History, Emerita, at Boston University and Associate of the John K. Fairbank Center for East Asian Research, Harvard University.