Governance, Domestic Change, and Social Policy in China in Historical Perspective

Abstract

Lin and Blanchard’s chapter introduces the original research and distilled reflections from the conference, “100 Years after the 1911 Chinese Revolution: Reflections and Forecasts,” which the editors organized under the auspices of the Association of Chinese Political Studies (ACPS) and the King’s China Institute, on June 17–19, 2011. It explains the historical approach adopted for examining common social, political and environmental challenges between the contemporary period and the Xinhai revolution in the volume, through identifying similarities in how reformers addressed governance shortcomings and specific ways contemporary social organizations and policy entrepreneurs contributed to the institutional and policy adaptive process initiated by the ruling party and state apparatus at different levels of the administrative hierarchy.