The Transformation of Governance in Rural China
Market, Finance, and Political Authority

Explores the economic, social and financial changes that have transformed China's rural governance over the past twenty years.

An Chen (Author)

9781107442078, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 29 November 2018

407 pages, 12 b/w illus. 30 tables
22.8 x 15.1 x 2 cm, 0.58 kg

'The Transformation of Governance in Rural China is an excellent, comprehensive, and thorough analysis of the impact of marketization and economic reforms on rural governance in China. This is a timely study because the steady rise of rural collective violence calls into question the regime's governing capacity in the vast Chinese countryside.' Jin Zeng, Journal of Chinese Political Science

The outbreak of organised, violent peasant protests across the Chinese countryside from the late 1990s to the early 2000s has attracted much scholarly interest. In this study, An Chen endeavours to understand from these protests the question of the Chinese government's control in the countryside and the impact of this violent resistance on China's rural governance in the context of market liberalisation. Utilising extensive field research and data collected from surveys across rural China, the book provides an in-depth exploration of how rural governance in China has been transformed following two major tax reforms: the tax-for-fee reform of 2002–4, and the abolition of agricultural taxes (AAT) in 2005–6. In a multidimensional analysis which combines approaches from political science, economics, finance and sociology, Chen argues that private economic power has merged with political power in a way that has reshaped village governance in China, threatening to fundamentally change its political structure.

1. Introduction
2. The changing foundations of Communist rule in China's rural society
3. The 1994 tax reform and rural fiscal crises
4. The township in the era of reform
5. The mechanisms of political power in villages
6. Village finance: its deterioration and consequences
7. The abolition of agricultural taxes and village governance
8. Transformed peasant society and realignment in rural politics
9. Entrepreneur cadres as new rural ruling elites
10. Prospects for China's rural governance
Appendices
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Regional government [JPR], Political structure & processes [JPH], Politics & government [JP]