This book contributes to the Taiwan Studies from an IR perspective, helping policy makers understand the influences of the overall international structure on regional security. Meanwhile, this book shows that national consciousness contributes as a possible starting point to do bring the society back to constructivism theorization of identity.

Conceptualizing China as a country with rapid economic transformation and little political progress has led to a normative misjudgment that economic reform should occur before significant democratization. This book compares several historical junctures during China's long journey towards democracy to observe the constraints of pre-chosen ideological and institutional patterns on political elites in advancing legal and electoral reforms. Confucian legacies of moralism, elitism, and state centralism, in addition to revolutionary guardianship and populism remain embedded in Chinese practice in...

It is found that the local entrepreneurial state deploys local state enterprises to undertake strategic urban redevelopment projects, organizes high-profile city/district marketing campaigns in entrepreneurial manners, and develops corporatist intermediations with local business owners for collaborative urban governance.

The book covers various aspects of political culture such as political regime support, political interest, democratic values, political trust, and environmental attitudes and sub-political culture of Chinese urban Christians.

This book uncovers the mysterious social and political structures of China's "Third Front," the large state-sponsored development of inland China during the late Maoist period.