Introduction

Abstract

This part includes a basic introduction of the content of each chapter, proposing the major argument of the book that China’s normalization and institutionalization of the bureaucratic system overseeing natural disaster management has had profound political implications in coordinating intractable central–local/civil–military/governmental–societal relations and improving the regime’s image and legitimacy. Often portrayed as the preferred means for consolidating the non-democratic regime’s legitimacy, the state-led disaster governance needs to effectively respond to pluralistic politics and societal demands by allowing interest groups and social forces to articulate their expectations and priorities through public decision-making. This chapter briefly reviews the problems and progress in China’s disaster management, highlighting major factors in its domestic political process that restrain its capacity to manage disasters. Here the author reviews important literatures in the field and includes an analysis of what makes this book distinctive from previous literatures.