This book describes how one local government in China has governed a much larger and vastly more complex market economy without any outward changes in the formal institutions of government. The chapters document the subtle but profound changes in the way that established governing bodies operate in practice. Drawing on local fieldwork conducted over many years in a single county, the chapters describe the ways that county agencies have evolved through ad hoc bureaucratic adaptations that have profoundly altered the way that government organs operate. This was not a locality that enjoyed remark ... More

This book describes how one local government in China has governed a much larger and vastly more complex market economy without any outward changes in the formal institutions of government. The chapters document the subtle but profound changes in the way that established governing bodies operate in practice. Drawing on local fieldwork conducted over many years in a single county, the chapters describe the ways that county agencies have evolved through ad hoc bureaucratic adaptations that have profoundly altered the way that government organs operate. This was not a locality that enjoyed remarkable resource endowments or geographical advantages, yet it advanced from average levels of development to become one of the nation’s wealthiest counties. Economic progress was fragile and far from unilinear, however: some townships that made the most rapid early progress have fallen behind, while some of the poorest townships are now among the richest. Chapters on administrative financing, business-government relations, and the non-judicial interpreters of “legality” and the development of law provides new insights into the way that local government has both shaped and responded to these developments. The picture that emerges is one of institutional agility and adaptiveness in a political regime that has proven to be highly resilient in support of local economic advancement.