Governance, Domestic Change, and Social Policy in China

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xv

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2. Governance, Domestic Change, and Social Policy in China in Historical Perspective

   • Kun-Chin Lin, Jean-Marc F. Blanchard

   Pages 1-20

3. Historical Continuities in Social Assistance in China, 1911–2011

   • Daniel Hammond

   Pages 21-43

4. ‘As Plants Grow Towards Sunlight…: Amity Foundation’s Social Function in Historical Perspective

   • Gerda Wielander

   Pages 45-66

5. Governing Disasters: A Comparative Analysis of the 1931, 1954 and 1998 Middle-Yangzi Floods in Hubei

   • Chris Courtney

   Pages 67-102

6. Reasons to Dam: China’s Hydropower Politics and Its Socio-Environmental Consequences

   • Sabrina Habich

   Pages 103-127

7. Grassroots Governance Reform in Urban China

   • Stephen Trott

   Pages 129-148

8. China’s Political Stability: Comparisons and Reflections

   • Shiping Zheng

   Pages 149-169

9. Back Matter

   Pages 171-199

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This book constitutes the first comprehensive retrospective on one hundred years of post-dynastic China and compares enduring challenges of governance in the period around the collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1911 to those of contemporary China. The authors examine three key areas of domestic change and policy adaptation: social welfare provision, local political institutional reform, and social and environmental consequences of major infrastructure projects. Demonstrating remarkable parallels between the immediate post-Qing era and the recent phase of Chinese reform since the late-1990s, the book highlights common challenges to the political leadership by tracing dynamics of state activism in crafting new social space and terms of engagement for problem-solving and exploring social forces that continue to undermine the centralizing impetus of the state.

• Governance
• Domestic Change
• Social Policy
• Chinese Governance
• China
• Xinhai Revolution
• governance
• politics
• revolution
• social policy
• social science

"The editors have a good variety of topics, ranging from a particular case (flooding); a particular organization (Amity Foundation); a particular project (dams) and international comparison (in political stability). Each chapter is well written and goes deep eough to analyze the selected area without presenting too much history. … Overall, this volume offers a very good collection for readers." (Hok Wong Cheung, Journal of Chinese Political Science, Vol. 24, 2019)

“Lin and Blanchard offer an edited volume on state and society in China that goes well beyond the norms of the genre. Data rich and analytically interesting, these essays offer a historically grounded set of perspectives on how state and society in China continue to interpenetrate and inform each other in unexpected ways.” (Julia C. Strauss, Professor of Chinese and Comparative Politics, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK)

“A thought-provoking volume that usefully deploys an historical lens to examine some of contemporary China’s most important social, environmental and political issues.” (Jane Duckett, Edward Caird Chair of Politics, University of Glasgow, UK)

“This is a highly stimulating and thoughtful set of essays that crosses chronology and disciplines.  Using the century-long arc since the 1911 Chinese revolution, the authors explore a variety of key issues—from governance to social welfare to civil society—in a comparative framework that makes exciting use of historical comparison while providing highly significant insights for the present day.” (Rana Mitter, Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China, University of Oxford, UK)

• East China Normal University , Los Gatos, USA

  Jean-Marc Blanchard

• Department of Politics, University of Cambridge Department of Politics, Cambridge, United Kingdom

  Kun-Chin Lin

Jean-Marc F. Blanchard is Distinguished Professor, School of Advanced International and Area Studies, East China Normal University, China, and Executive Director of the Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations, United States.  His research emphasizes foreign investment in and from China, Chinese foreign economic policy, and multinational corporations.


Kun-Chin Lin is University Lecturer in the Department of Politics and International Studies and Director of the Centre for Rising Powers, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. His research covers the political economy of China, transport infrastructure and energy policies, industrial policy and regulation, fiscal federalism, maritime governance, and regionalism in Asia.

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