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Toward Better Governance in China
An Unconventional Pathway of Political Reform
Editors:
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Publisher:
2009
Summary
Toward Better Governance in China takes a fresh look at the latest efforts made by Chinese leaders to promote governance-based reform. It asserts that the improvement of governance has now become one of the breakthrough points of the much anticipated political reform. Although the Chinese government continues to play down expectations about political reform, many small-scale reform experiments have been quietly undertaken by Chinese leaders at various levels in recent years, including the new round of administrative reform centered on the creation of 'super ministries,' the enlargement of inner-party democracy within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the strengthening of local legislative bodies, and judicial reform designed to promote judicial independence and rule of law. This strategy calls for strengthening governing capacity and changing government functions. One of the advantages in placing the improvement of governance first is that it is less risky than embarking upon a full-scaled electoral reform. Electoral democracy is undoubtedly an important element in a functional democracy. But equally important is the effectiveness, transparency, accountability, and openness of the governing process. Better governance implies greater transparency, open deliberation and participation, and less adversarial political confrontation and conflict. If constructed properly, China may become the sort of democratic administration or administrative democracy that Robert Dahl discussed in 1947. Clearly, political reform of this kind does not follow the conventional wisdom of a democratic transition which places heavy emphasis on electoral reform or the precedence of the electoral reform to the government reform. This book is intended to shed some new light on the ongoing debate about the direction of China's political development.
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Bibliographic data
Copyright year
2009
ISBN-Print
978-0-7391-4027-7
ISBN-Online
978-0-7391-4029-1
Publisher
Lexington, Lanham
Language
English
Pages
211
Product type
Edited Book
Table of contents
ChapterPages
Table of Contents No access
List of Figures No access
List of Tables No access
Contributors No access
Acknowledgments No access
Introduction. Toward Better Governance No access Pages 1 - 16
1. To Build a Government of Better Transparency and More Accountability: the CCP's Governance Performance in the Hu Era No access Pages 17 - 34
2. The Super Ministry System Reform in China: Bureaucratic Politics or Administrative Reform toward a Public Service Government? No access Pages 35 - 50
3. Generalized vs. Particularized Social Capital: Social Trust and Grass-Roots Governance in Urban China No access Pages 51 - 70
4. The State's Rubber Stamp or Independent Agent: A Study on the Development of Municipal People's Congress in China No access Pages 71 - 88
5. China's Healthcare System Reform: Development, Issues, and Prospects No access Pages 89 - 102
6. Norms, Laws, Political Accountability and China's Legal Reform—the Cases of ALL and Xinfang (L & V) No access Pages 103 - 124
7. Policy Experimentation and China's Labor Market Regulation: The Case of the Labor Contract Law No access Pages 125 - 146
8. Changing Bottom Line: Broadcasting Regulation in China No access Pages 147 - 162
9. Why is Xinjiang Still a New Dominion? No access Pages 163 - 182
10. The Road to Ethnic Harmony: An Analysis of Internal Causes to the Ethnic Issues in Xinjiang No access Pages 183 - 204
