Description: Fewsmith explains why political reform in China started, why it has stalled and in many cases gone backward.
Brief description: Joseph Fewsmith is Professor of International Relations and Political Science at Boston University. He is the author of China since Tiananmen: From Deng Xiaoping to Hu Jintao (2008), which is the second edition of China since Tiananmen (2001); Elite Politics in Contemporary China (2001); The Dilemmas of Reform in China: Political Conflict and Economic Debate (1994); and Party, State, and Local Elites in Republican China: Merchant Organizations and Politics in Shanghai, 1980-1930 (1985). He is the editor of China Today, China Tomorrow (2010) and co-editor, with Zheng Yongnian, of China's Opening Society (2008). He is very active in the China field, traveling to China frequently and presenting papers at professional conferences such as the Association for Asian Studies and the American Political Science Association. His articles have appeared in such journals as The China Quarterly, Asian Survey, The Journal of Contemporary China, Modern China and Comparative Studies in Society and History. He is one of seven regular contributors to China Leadership Monitor, a quarterly web publication analyzing current developments in China. He is also an associate of the John King Fairbank Center for East Asian Studies at Harvard University and of the Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer Range Future at Boston University.
Review Quotes: "Fewsmith's superb new book is a warning against optimistic hopes that China will gradually evolve into a democracy. This warning emerges from the book's telling case studies of failed attempts at local political reforms that had aimed to make officials more accountable to the public. In each case, promising reforms were thwarted by a combination of bureaucratic interests; established organizational principles - it is the Party, not the public, that controls cadres; and entrenched practices such as regular transfers of Party secretaries, which removes reform-minded officials from the scene. Even the most promising experiment in promoting "consultative democracy" turned into "consultative authoritarianism" as elite interests and preferences prevailed. Liberalizing political reform is on the agenda of China's top leaders, but even if they decide to enact such reforms, implementation faces the kinds of impediments illustrated so well in this important study."
Thomas P. Bernstein, Professor Emeritus, Columbia University