Monday, March 11th, 2013 The Logic and Limits of Political Reform in China

Description

In the 1990s China embarked on a series of political reforms intended to increase, however modestly, political participation and reduce the abuse of power by local officials. Although there was initial progress, these reforms have largely stalled and, in many cases, gone backward. If there were sufficient incentives to inaugurate reform, why wasn’t there enough momentum to continue and deepen them? The short answer is that the sort of reforms necessary to make local officials more responsible to the citizens they govern cut too deeply into the organizational structure of the party.

Joseph Fewsmith is Professor of International Relations and Political Science at Boston University. He is the author or editor of seven books, including, most recently (January 2013), The Logic and Limits of Political Reform in China (Cambridge University Press). Other works include China since Tiananmen (2nd edition, 2008) and China Today, China Tomorrow (2010). Other books include Elite Politics in Contemporary China (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2001), The Dilemmas of Reform in China: Political Conflict and Economic Debate (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1994), and Party, State, and Local Elites in Republican China: Merchant Organizations and Politics in Shanghai, 1890-1930 (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1985). He is one of the seven regular contributors to the China Leadership Monitor, a quarterly web publication analyzing current developments in China. He travels to China regularly and is active in the Association for Asian Studies and the American Political Science Association. He is an associate of the John King Fairbank Center for East Asian Studies at Harvard University and the Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer Range Future at Boston University.