Accountability Without Democracy: Solidary Groups and Public Goods Provision in Rural China

ISBN-13: 9780521692809 / Angielski / Miękka / 2007 / 368 str.

Lily Lee Tsai

Opis

This book examines the fundamental issue of how citizens get government officials to provide them with the roads, schools, and other public services they need by studying communities in rural China. In authoritarian and transitional systems, formal institutions for holding government officials accountable are often weak. The answer, Lily L. Tsai found, lies in a community's social institutions. Even when formal democratic and bureaucratic institutions of accountability are weak, government officials can still be subject to informal rules and norms created by community solidary groups that have earned high moral standing in the community.

Recenzje

'Lily Tsai has written an elegant book to explain variations in the government provision of public goods in rural China through a model of informal accountability. … This inspiring piece of work will be required reading for students of Chinese politics and those interested in governance in developing polities.' The China Journal

Spis treści

1. Governance and informal institutions of accountability; 2. Decentralization and local governmental performance; 3. Local governmental performance: assessing village public goods provision; 4. Informal accountability and the structure of solidary groups; 5. Temples and churches in rural China; 6. Lineages and local governance; 7. Accountability and village democratic reforms; 8. The limitations of formal party and bureaucratic institutions; 9. Conclusion.