Calamity and Reform in China

Calamity and Reform in China PDF Author: Dali L. Yang
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804734704
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 375

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Book Description
This is the first book-length treatment of the political causes and consequences of the Great Leap Famine (1959-61), one of the worst tragedies in human history.

Calamity and Reform in China

Calamity and Reform in China PDF Author: Dali L. Yang
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804734704
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 375

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Book Description
This is the first book-length treatment of the political causes and consequences of the Great Leap Famine (1959-61), one of the worst tragedies in human history.

The Transformation of Governance in Rural China

The Transformation of Governance in Rural China PDF Author: An Chen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107081750
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 409

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

Taxation without Representation in Contemporary Rural China

Taxation without Representation in Contemporary Rural China PDF Author: Thomas P. Bernstein
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139438042
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 302

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Book Description
The financial burden imposed upon the Chinese farmer by local taxes has become a major source of discontent in the Chinese countryside and a worrisome source of political and social instability for the Chinese government. Bernstein and Lü examine the forms and sources of heavy, informal taxation, and shed light on how peasants defend their interests by adopting strategies of collective resistance (both peaceful and violent). Bernstein and Lü also explain why the central government, while often siding with the peasants, has not been able to solve the burden problem by instituting a sound, reliable financial system in the countryside. While the regime has, to some extent, sought to empower farmers to defend their interests - by informing them about tax rules, expanding the legal system, and instituting village elections, for example, these attempts have not yet generated enough power from 'below' to counter powerful, local official agencies.

Rural Roots of Reform Before China's Conservative Change

Rural Roots of Reform Before China's Conservative Change PDF Author: Lynn T. White III
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351247670
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
China’s economic and military rise dominates discussions of the world’s most populous country. Resilient authoritarian government is credited with great successes, but this book expands the discourse to include governance by village heads - who often ignored central politicians. Chinese reforms for prosperity started circa 1970 under rural and suburban leaders. They could act autonomously then because of unexpected political and technological opportunities. Their localization of power eroded socialist controls. Since 1990, central leaders have tried to reverse reforms made by resilient local bosses. New findings, especially from the Yangzi delta around Shanghai, challenge the top-down approach to thinking about governance. As Deng Xiaoping admitted, the nation’s spurt of prosperity began in local communities rather than Beijing. Reforms for triple-cropping and rural industrialization started long before Mao’s death (not in 1978, the date most writers cite). Country factories competed with state industries for materials and markets. Shortages by the 1980s led to inflation, government deficits, unofficial credit, unenforceable planning, illegal migrations, then international exports - and severe political tensions. After 1990, Party leaders sought policies to build a Leninist regime that is mostly post-socialist. These reactionary changes have lasted into the era of Xi Jinping. China’s reforms and subsequent changes can be understood as results of unintended situations not just ideas, and local not just central politics. This book will interest students and scholars of Chinese, as well as any readers who wonder about comparative development.

Urban China

Urban China PDF Author: World Bank
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 1464802068
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 583

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Book Description
In the last 30 years, China’s record economic growth lifted half a billion people out of poverty, with rapid urbanization providing abundant labor, cheap land, and good infrastructure. While China has avoided some of the common ills of urbanization, strains are showing as inefficient land development leads to urban sprawl and ghost towns, pollution threatens people’s health, and farmland and water resources are becoming scarce. With China’s urban population projected to rise to about one billion – or close to 70 percent of the country’s population – by 2030, China’s leaders are seeking a more coordinated urbanization process. Urban China is a joint research report by a team from the World Bank and the Development Research Center of China’s State Council which was established to address the challenges and opportunities of urbanization in China and to help China forge a new model of urbanization. The report takes as its point of departure the conviction that China's urbanization can become more efficient, inclusive, and sustainable. However, it stresses that achieving this vision will require strong support from both government and the markets for policy reforms in a number of area. The report proposes six main areas for reform: first, amending land management institutions to foster more efficient land use, denser cities, modernized agriculture, and more equitable wealth distribution; second, adjusting the hukou household registration system to increase labor mobility and provide urban migrant workers equal access to a common standard of public services; third, placing urban finances on a more sustainable footing while fostering financial discipline among local governments; fourth, improving urban planning to enhance connectivity and encourage scale and agglomeration economies; fifth, reducing environmental pressures through more efficient resource management; and sixth, improving governance at the local level.

Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics

Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics PDF Author: Yasheng Huang
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139475134
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 560

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Book Description
Presents a story of two Chinas – an entrepreneurial rural China and a state-controlled urban China. In the 1980s, rural China gained the upper hand. In the 1990s, urban China triumphed. In the 1990s, the Chinese state reversed many of its rural experiments, with long-lasting damage to the economy and society. A weak financial sector, income disparity, rising illiteracy, productivity slowdowns, and reduced personal income growth are the product of the capitalism with Chinese characteristics of the 1990s and beyond. While GDP grew quickly in both decades, the welfare implications of growth differed substantially. The book uses the emerging Indian miracle to debunk the widespread notion that democracy is automatically anti-growth. As the country marked its 30th anniversary of reforms in 2008, China faces some of its toughest economic challenges and substantial vulnerabilities that require fundamental institutional reforms.

The Dragon and the Elephant

The Dragon and the Elephant PDF Author: Ashok Gulati
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
ISBN: 9780801887864
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
China and India are the most extraordinary economic success stories of the developing world. Both nations’ economies have grown dramatically over the past few decades, elevating them from two of the world’s poorest countries into projected economic superpowers. As a result, the numbers of Chinese and Indians living in poverty have rapidly fallen and per capita incomes in China and India have quadrupled and doubled, respectively. This book investigates the reasons for these staggering accomplishments and the lessons that can be applied both to other developing nations and to the problem of poverty that remains in these two countries. The contributors pay particular attention to agriculture and the rural economy, examining how initial conditions and investments and the prioritization and sequencing of different policies and strategies have led to successes, and how the agricultural and rural sectors connect to overall economic expansion. They also emphasize the importance of anti-poverty programs and safety nets in helping poor people escape poverty. The book offers a set of policy and strategic options for future growth and poverty reduction. These include setting the right priorities for public spending, identifying trade and market reforms, building social safety nets for the poorest of the poor, and building accountable institutions that can provide public goods and services effectively. The book concludes by examining future challenges to China and India’s economic development, such as the need to ensure growth that is sustainable, equitable, and environmentally friendly. The Dragon and the Elephant offers valuable insights to development specialists anxious to multiply the benefits experienced by two of the greatest economic successes in recent times.

Coordinating Urban and Rural Development in China

Coordinating Urban and Rural Development in China PDF Author: Ye Yumin
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1781952035
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 424

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Book Description
•The focus of published narrative on the great Chinese urbanization wave was always going to sharpen _ away from the general fascination, assertions, theories and commentaries to specific issues and specific regions. Well here is a first class example

Grassroots Political Reform in Contemporary China

Grassroots Political Reform in Contemporary China PDF Author: Elizabeth J. Perry
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674042050
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 415

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Book Description
Observers often note the glaring contrast between China's stunning economic progress and stalled political reforms. Although sustained growth in GNP has not brought democratization at the national level, this does not mean that the Chinese political system has remained unchanged. At the grassroots level, a number of important reforms have been implemented in the last two decades. This volume, written by scholars who have undertaken substantial fieldwork in China, explores a range of grassroots efforts--initiated by the state and society alike--intended to restrain arbitrary and corrupt official behavior and enhance the accountability of local authorities. Topics include village and township elections, fiscal reforms, legal aid, media supervision, informal associations, and popular protests. While the authors offer varying assessments of the larger significance of these developments, their case studies point to a more dynamic Chinese political system than is often acknowledged. When placed in historical context--as in the Introduction--we see that reforms in local governance are hardly a new feature of Chinese political statecraft and that the future of these experiments is anything but certain.

OECD Tax Policy Studies Tax Policy Reform and Economic Growth

OECD Tax Policy Studies Tax Policy Reform and Economic Growth PDF Author: OECD
Publisher: OECD Publishing
ISBN: 9264091084
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 157

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Book Description
This report investigates how tax structures can best be designed to support GDP per capita growth.