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Grassroots Governance Reform in Urban China

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Governance, Domestic Change, and Social Policy in China

Abstract

Trott offers an analysis of China’s urban grassroots governance reform known as community construction (shequ jianshe). Contrasting these recent institutional changes with the introduction of Western-style governance reforms in the years leading up to 1911, the chapter highlights the domestic processes underlying the current reforms. Spurred by the post-Mao socio-economic transformation, community construction represents efforts to reconfigure grassroots political institutions to new realities. Tracing the reforms back over several decades reveals an incremental process of institutional adaptation marked by distinct stages. Local needs and experimentation interact with central priorities and processes to yield a home-grown pool of institutional models. Whether these incremental changes can influence the principles and practices of one-party rule remain to be seen.

The author expresses thanks to the Ontario Graduate Scholarship, the Dr. David Chu Scholarhship in Asia Pacific Studies, and the Canada–China Scholars Exchange Program for funding this research.

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      Authors and Affiliations

      1. University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

        Stephen Trott

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      1. Stephen Trott
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      Editors and Affiliations

      1. East China Normal University , Los Gatos, California, USA

        Jean-Marc Blanchard

      2. Department of Politics, University of Cambridge Department of Politics, Cambridge, United Kingdom

        Kun-Chin Lin

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      Trott, S. (2017). Grassroots Governance Reform in Urban China. In: Blanchard, JM., Lin, KC. (eds) Governance, Domestic Change, and Social Policy in China. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-02285-1_6

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