Local Political Units Research Articles

The role of the Italic community as a new agent of glocal development in the post-pandemic era

<abstract> <p>The pandemic and the digital revolution are changing the global geopolitical landscape. The dispersion of power linked to the new digital decision-making centers is accompanied by a fragmentation of the traditional system of power in the international geopolitical arena. In this scenario, it is difficult to identify who is in charge of sovereignty and governance. A glocal perspective would suggest continuing to look at States, but also at local political entities, such as cities, and super-national cultural identities, such as global civilizations. It is a solution that could allow Italy, and other countries, to avoid what John Agnew called the territorial trap that would push the world system into giving national answers to the growing number of global challenges. In the post-pandemic phase, Italy will face its most important test of resilience since the Second World War. This paper intends to investigate whether and in what terms the Italian State will be able to recognize and make use of the soft power of the Italic community and civilization as a new agent of glocal development. The digital revolution accelerated by the pandemic could in fact transform the digital space into the ideal place for the recognition and strengthening of the global network of Italics around the world. Italic is not simply a synonym for Italian. Italic is someone who appreciates and recognizes the charm of Italy. The Italic does not necessarily have a passport or an Italian bloodline; he can live in Italy or anywhere else. The way of life and the commonality of values is the glue that unites Italics and this can become a soft power of Italy, strengthening the Italian State internally and externally. We refer to that mix of culture, taste, style, quality craftsmanship, fashion, design, high-value manufacturing, electronics, robotics, avant-garde entrepreneurship and gastronomic excellence that gives life to a refined art of living well.</p> </abstract>

Minimizing surface run-off, improving underground water recharging, and on-site rain harvesting in the Kathmandu valley

Nepal’s political institutions and administrative units were thoroughly restructured in 2015 with the promulgation of the new Constitution. Several rural areas were combined to meet the definition of urban threshold criteria to classify rural areas into urban categories. Accordingly, over 3,900 local political and administrative units were amalgamated into 753 units, of which, 293 units are classified as urban. Within these newly defined urban areas, many natural environments have been converted into impervious surfaces such as paved roads, sidewalks, and building roofs. These impervious surfaces have drastically increased the amount of surface run-offs—often termed as “urban floods” --under increasing precipitation caused by global climate change. These incidences have negatively impacted to the groundwater recharge processes in the urban areas.
 Data on groundwater recharge rates are needed in the context of global climate change to understand the status of groundwater recharge processes in the urban areas of Nepal. However, due to various limitations, this study only focuses around the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal to understand: a) how the expansion of urban, peri-urban, and associated areas have resulted in decreasing groundwater recharges; b) how groundwater is affected by the year-to-year variability of precipitation amount (low and high intensity) with the conversion of the natural landscape into built-up areas; and c) how the changing trends in precipitation and evapotranspiration may impact future groundwater availability. This study is based on a review of the literature and the analysis of secondary data available from the government and various social media and authors' professional experiences. The study ends with some recommendations based on experiences from other parts of the world on groundwater recharge processes.

Settlement and Culture in the Inner Apennines: a diachronic topographic analysis of Casentino and Valtiberina (7th‑5th centuries BCE)

This work presents a temporary settlement analysis of Casentino and Valtiberina, from the 7th to the 5th century BCE. During this period, these regions may have constituted an area of Apennine interconnectivity. Over time, they became the hinterland to one or more local political entities. To demonstrate these points, I begin by creating a theoretical model of the relationship between aristocratic and civic networks and the movement of professional artisans in the hinterland. The activity of these professionals in Casentino and Valtiberina becomes clear through singling out relevant patterns in material culture and building techniques. The final diachronic analysis of these patterns shows a drastic change in local settlement strategies in the middle of the 6th century BCE. This change can be related to simultaneous processes recorded along the rest of the Tiber Valley, perhaps resulting from the political influence of Clusium and its allies. To conclude, two different areas of settlement are interpreted as two hinterlands belonging to different cities, namely Arretium and Faesulae.

The Impact Of Religious Values On Social And Political Change In Tolitoli In The Early 20th Century

There is no doubt, interpretation of religious values by social and political elites in the modern social history has significantly influenced the development of political structure at national, regional and global level. At least, the phenomena has appeared since the period of Muhammad in the seventh century around Arabic peninsula, the rise of Islamic empires in the western Asia from the seventh to twelfth century, Spain under the Moslem and Christian powers, Turk during the Ottoman Empire from fifteenth to nineteenth century, Europe nations in the period of Crusaders from eleventh to fourteenth century, American independence war more than two hundred years ago. And in some cases, religious values were used effectively to mobilize local people against the western governments in Asia and Africa in the last century. Local political entities in South East Asia also experienced the same political development. Jihad concept fuelled and promoted social and political movements of Imam Diponegoro in Java, Sultan Hasanuddin in Makassar, Panglima Polem in Aceh, and Moro independence movement in Philippine. By using document analysis, depth interviews, and field observation, this study documents historical evidences that Haji Hayyun played a significant role politically and socially in Tolitoli, Sulawesi Tengah in the early twentieth century. Although tragically ended, as a figure he successfully used religious sentiment to get support from his followers against the Dutch government in Tolitoli.

Local territorial attachment in times of jurisdictional consolidation

Many European countries are changing political boundaries at the local government level. Reforms consolidating local jurisdictions have recently been implemented in a number of countries, and more mergers/amalgamations are ongoing. We examine whether citizens' attachment to their local political unit is affected when municipal maps are redrawn. Our study is based on a dataset from Danish local governments with survey data from before and after a major reform of municipal mergers, and the traditional endogeneity problems are thereby circumvented. Drawing on Scannell and Gifford's tripartite model of person, place and process, we find that person characteristics affect local territorial attachment as well as the intersection between places of residence and the processes leading to the new jurisdiction. It is not an increase in the absolute size of the municipality (i.e., place) or the amalgamation as such (i.e., process) that affects the level of attachment, but rather the relative size of the former municipality compared to the new municipality and thereby the specifics of the redrawing of boundaries. When smaller municipalities are amalgamated with larger municipalities, the local territorial attachment decreases among citizens living in the smaller municipalities but not among citizens living in the larger municipalities.

Epidemiology of snakebites in El Salvador (2014–2019)

This study describes the basic epidemiological features of snakebites in El Salvador for the period 2014–2019 on the basis of data provided by the national system of information on morbidity and mortality (Sistema de Morbi-Mortalidad via Web, SIMMOW) of the Ministry of Health of El Salvador. The total number of cases per year ranged from 161 (2017) to 215 (2016). Incidences ranged from 2.52 cases to 3.38 cases per 100,000 population per year, corresponding to the years 2017 and 2016, respectively. Five deaths were recorded in the six-year period, four in 2015 and one in 2016, for a case fatality rate of 0.44%. Snakebites peaked during the rainy season (May to November) and mostly affected people in the age groups of 10–30 years. The male/female ratio was 1.59. The Departments (local political units) showing the highest number of cases were Santa Ana, Libertad, Chalatenango, Sonsonate, and La Unión. Most cases were attended at departmental and regional hospitals (second level of attention). The incidence and mortality due to snakebite envenoming in El Salvador are the lowest reported for Central America. This may be related to the fact that Bothrops asper, the medically most important snake species in the region, is not distributed in El Salvador, where the rattlesnake Crotalus simus predominates.

Beyond Sovereign Reason: Issues and Contestations in Contemporary African Identity

AbstractIssues of collective identity discourses and integration in Africa often face competing national and primordial identities. We explore multilayered integrative mechanisms that have become constitutive of collective African identity. We examine the nature of this identity taking a modern constructivist view of Africa's encounter with Europe. But we also address basic anthropological concerns, focusing on present and future prospects and seeking to understand how this identity is shaped by international politics or synchronized with local political units.

Health Equity in Community Assessments: A Participatory Approach in Rural Virginia

A coalition of community members and human service professionals in the rural central Shenandoah Valley of Virginia has performed a community assessment every 5 years. Overreliance on quantitative surveys and hospital-based Community Health Needs Assessments resulted in earlier assessments failing to identify the needs of vulnerable populations. As the coalition approached the time for a new assessment, their priority was to develop a deeper understanding of community health needs and solutions. An extended co-learning process between coalition, community, and local academic representatives resulted in a plan to develop assessment methods and community health improvement resources suited to this goal. The coalition identified methods rooted in the social determinants of health and utilized a community-based participatory research approach to provide underserved residents the opportunity to contribute to health research and decision making and produce an assessment more reflective of their community. Resources including local interpretation and implications of the World Health Organization’s 10 Social Determinants of Health, a Healthy People 2020 community health services profile, and user-friendly access to community-based secondary data sets were developed for intervention planning. All information, resources, and implications were shared at meetings, in public announcements, and at a public forum. All data remain publicly available on the coalition’s website. Previously held beliefs regarding access to care and quality of life were substantiated through this process, enabling the coalition to better align itself with local political entities and to move forward immediately with community health improvement planning.

Greening the agri-environmental policy by territorial and participative implementation processes? Evidence from two French regions

After nearly three decades of agri-environmental policy in the European Union, the negative environmental impacts of agricultural practices are still an ongoing problem. Though a substantial body of work underlines the economic, cultural, and social factors that could encourage farmers to adopt less damaging farming practices, many researchers as well as practitioners raise the question of the efficacy of leaving agri-environmental policy processes in the hands of farmers' organizations and national agricultural departments. The activation of non-agricultural actors in these processes is increasingly considered as a driving force toward greener agri-environmental schemes. Using the case of two French regions during the 2007–2013 period, this study examines the effects of the new, decentralized, and multi-stakeholder governance of agri-environmental scheme implementation. This analysis explores how the presence of regional and local political entities and environmentalist organizations affect (or not) both the content of agri-environmental schemes and the traditional corporatist style of agricultural policy making. This study shows two main results. First, it reveals that non-agricultural actors adopt various strategies to neutralize the reformist effect their presence should theoretically have generated within agri-environmental policy. Second, it indicates the dominance of a sectoral and corporatist policymaking style over the territorial modes of policy implementation. Together, these dynamics underline a path dependency phenomenon in agricultural policies, one characterized by the political-economic dominant position of agricultural administrations and farmers’ groups.

Glamour and gripes of community forestry: impact on income distribution

Abstract on PDF

The (Non)Politics of Emergency Political Intervention: The Racial Geography of Urban Crisis Management in Michigan

The following mixed method study investigates Michigan’s system of fiscal emergency management, which disproportionately impacts African Americans. According to conventional explanations, the overrepresentation of emergency political intervention (EPI) in black communities is a happenstance product of African American populations being concentrated in fiscally distressed urban areas. We first investigate this hypothetically spurious association using multivariate methods. While the State’s objective fiscal scoring of local political units explains a great deal in terms of the distribution of EPI, black population is also an independently significant predictor. When we control for fiscal score, the odds of intervention in a local political unit (e.g. city, township, school district) increase by 50% for every 10 percentage-point increase in the local black population. Second, a qualitative analysis of the EPI law and its application both supports our statistical findings and points to two explanations of the role of race in EPI. First, racial bias and segregation may have a direct impact on EPI distribution. Second, race may play an indirect role, insofar as its effects are intertwined in complex ways with other processes and mechanisms. Specifically, we emphasize the relationship between post-crisis patterns of urban value extraction and the racial logic of emergency fiscal intervention.

The Role of the Agreements Concluded with Local Political Entities in the Course of French Colonial Expansion in West Africa

Scholars, historians and lawyers alike, frequently deny legal value to the numerous agreements concluded between local political entities and colonial powers during the process of European territorial expansion in Africa. They often argue that these agreements were not ‘treaties’ because local political entities were not ‘states’ under international law. Doubts also relate to the capacity of local polities to understand and engage in meaningful legal relations with colonial powers. An analysis of French colonial practice of concluding agreements with West African political entities reveals that France and local political entities viewed these agreements as legal instruments. Accordingly, these agreements created, in conformity with their terms, rights and obligations under international law. Depending still on their terms, the agreements with local political entities could confer titles of territorial sovereignty or establish protectorates. When France decided to establish its sovereignty over West African territories at the end of the nineteenth century, it did so mainly through conquest. In this process, France marginalised agreements, such as those establishing protectorates, which did not have the effect of establishing its sovereignty over West African territories.

Local Political Units and Sovereignty in the Perspective of Carl Schmitt’s Political Philosophy

To Schmitt, a parliamentary system is a direct product of the liberal rule of law, which is by itself an attempt of bourgeoisie to protect itself from the state, and as such an anti-political form. As the whole liberal position of bourgeoisie, the parliamentarism is inconsistent in its position towards political matters. The second problem of parliamentarism is that it historically represents a tool of bourgeoisie to integrate in the monarchic state and achieve political unity. The historical antagonism between the bourgeoisie and proletariat does not seem to be solved even in a present day state, being it particularly true for the post-communist states, but also the rest of the world, as clearly demonstrated by the latest economic crisis. The liberal ties of parliamentarism with representative democracy based on individual secret ballot only contribute to the problem. These notions are for Schmitt closely connected to the concept of sovereignty. A sovereign is the one who decides about the state of exception within the legal order. This power is not only a legal but also a factual question. Every political subject aspiring to gain independence should note this fact in order to be able to claim the sovereign power.

Cohorts in chronic disease research: experiences from the PRO-LIFE cohort, Varkala, South India

This study demonstrates the setting up of a cohort study in a resource poor setting. The study began as an initial survey in 2001 conducted at Varkala, Kerala by Health Action by People, a non-profit research group. It was a cross sectional study of all households in seven Panchayaths and an urban segment coming under the ICDS (Integrated Child Development Scheme) block. Eventually with multiple funding sources, the study was extended as a cohort study, in the form of a registry for births, deaths and major health events in the community from 20022006. The cohort was named PRO-LIFE (Population registry of lifestyle diseases) with the objectives of setting up a community registry for coronary disease, hypertension, stroke, COPD & type 2 diabetes and to initiate community level action for prevention of these diseases. The study was conducted by trained grass root level workers of the ICDS programme and the comprehensive survey included socio-demographic characteristics, food frequency information, detailed lifestyle attributes and information on births and deaths. A cause of death analysis was also conducted during the period 2002-2006 which showed a similarity with USA except neoplasms. However the age standardised death rates were much higher than USA. Other findings include a high suicide rate among the young population, higher prevalence of diabetes in the affluent group and a reduced relative risk for mortality from coronary heart disease in more physically active men and women. The follow up was stopped after 2006 due to lack of funds and unreliable collection of information. It is currently proposed to resurvey the project population including anthropometry and biochemical profile with periodic follow up and fool proof system of reporting births, deaths and major events. The experience showed that full support of the local self government and political units is very important. Existing health workers need to be carefully selected for long term follow up. Discussion points included the reasons for high suicide rate among young females and the social gradient of non-communicable diseases. The high rate of suicide among youngsters may be due to their high aspirations and pressures such as entrance examinations. The higher prevalence of noncommunicable diseases in the affluent classes may be due to their lifestyle, however it may change very soon as we move from a situation of food scarcity to plenty of food.

Berber Law by French Means: Customary Courts in the Moroccan Hinterlands, 1930–1956

As the French conquered Muslim lands in their nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century quest for empire, they encountered multiple and sometimes mixed judicial systems among the native populations. In many places, legal codes were shaped by eitherfiqh, meaning Islamic law, one component of which is customary law, or by non-Islamic custom, or some combination of the two. To administer native justice in French colonies and protectorates, officials sorted through this multiplicity in order to standardize procedures, principles, and punishments. The standardization of customary law codes, whether written or oral prior to submission to themakhzan(the central Moroccan government, lit. “storehouse”) under the Protectorate, required that French officials both maintain pre-contact codes and create new institutions to administer and monitor them. Through new judicial bureaucracies, the French transformed indigenous law. Customary law was a “residual category” in the sense that it consisted of what remained after colonial powers ferreted out what they considered morally offensive and politically objectionable. Legal codification involved what Vincent calls “a compromise between those recognized as leading elements in indigenous societies and the colonial administrators who co-opted them.” Yet customary law, “if understood as allowing local people to do their own cultural ‘thing,’ should also be understood to have been a carefully restricted fragment of ‘tradition.’” This tradition when manifest as customary law “implies that there is a different kind of law with which it can be contrasted,” making customary law “the ongoing product of encounters between subordinate local political entities and dominant overarching ones.” In such encounters the distinction made between custom and law has long preoccupied legal historians, as well as anthropologists, colonial administrators, and importantly, lay people. Throughout French African colonies and protectorates, this distinction was key to the French usurpation of social institutions, as was true in British overseas territories as well.

The Revival Dilemma: Reflections on Human Rights, Self-Determination and Legal Pluralism in Eastern Indonesia

On the fall of Suharto, the long-surviving authoritarian president of Indonesia, in 1998, the ‘reform era’ began. Quite revolutionary laws on decentralisation sought to meet international notions of democracy and human rights, and local claims to greater self-determination. The decentralisation process in Indonesia was thus accompanied by a nationwide trend to revive local traditions, political units and institutions, and traditional leaders. This paper focuses on the Moluccan islands in Eastern Indonesia, where, in addition to a revival of adat (tradition and customary law), there was a strategic move by local people to foster reconciliation after conflicts in the early post-Suharto period, mainly between Christians and Muslims.At the international level Indonesia took account of the recently developed notions of collective human rights, including indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination and autonomy, and their rights to preserve and practice their own culture. This entailed the revival and re-recognition of traditional villages (negeri) and the reinstallation of traditional village heads (raja). New decentralisation laws enabled village people as cultural collectivities to return to their village adat, but tended towards the exclusion, or non-equal treatment, of cultural outsiders.At the national level decentralisation provisions, constitutional amendments, and a Human Rights Law were enacted. These were to be implemented at the local level. However, progress was impeded by the outbreak of bloody and lengthy Christian-Muslim conflict. After a peace meeting in 2002 put an official end to the conflict, local actors hoped to build sustainable peace through the revival or strengthening of traditions, traditional leaders, structures and customary law. The raja as traditional leaders and potential mediators, but also part of the national government system, were to play a central role. The new national autonomy law gave such local tendencies legal support, and stated that diversity was to be acknowledged. The laws raised many issues. There were various difficulties in determining who should be raja in many districts, and in settling their powers. There were further questions as to whether the observance of cultural rights could be premised on fixed and static notions of culture, as to which persons should make the decisive choices, and whether adat could be reduced to writing without losing its necessary flexibility. The paper uses a study of the Honitetu district to explore these issues.It is suggested in conclusion that an unconditional revival of adat would be counterproductive. It is argued that it is crucial to preserve the flexibility of adat in order to adapt it to changing political, social and economic circumstances and to accommodate all people living in the territories, both cultural insiders and outsiders.

Conflict prevention and resolution in Africa and lessons from the past: The Democratic Republic of Congo up to 2003 with comparisons from Mozambique

I. In this study in conflict prevention and resolution in Africa it is imperative to isolate the different levels of the conflict for a proper appreciation of the resolution strategies. The dynamics of conflicts in a colonial situation would particularly require this categorisation, based on periodization of events. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as in almost all colonial situations in Africa conflicts start from the typically local level between ethnic groups competing for control of opportunity and resources. This stage can include eventually larger or wider conflagrations of clans, chieftaincies or kingdoms. The second level involves the encounter of foreigners and local political entities, European adventurers or explorers and the chiefs. At this level the focus of the foreigners, usually on trade, operates initially with local cooperation and collaboration which however diminishes with the development of intensified European interests designed to reduce and subjugate the Africans in order to gain full control of the local resources. This stage will entail armed conflict known as primary resistance, in defence of competing economic and political interests and power. This conflict is resolved by survival of the fittest, usually the colonial force. The next level represents sustained local reaction to foreign domination which transcends ethnic dimensions to eventually assume mass nationalist political uprising designed for total replacement of the colonial order with independence. Conflicts characterizing the post-colonial scene arise from disillusionment often created by poor governance, corruption, diminishing human rights and increasing poverty and hopelessness. This conflict sometimes in the form of civil wars occasionally assumes an ethnic character as was the case in the Biafran war triggered by the Ibo tribe in Nigeria. In the case of the DRC this ethnic dynamic has been complicated by external and extra-territorial intervention to exploit and plunder Congolese natural resources and wealth. This stage can be repetitive and cyclic and engenders enormous political turmoil. The second largest country in Africa, located in the heart of the continent, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is endowed with enormous natural resources that include

Constructing Television Communities: The FCC, Signals, and Cities, 1948–1957

This study analyzes the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) efforts to define the television “community” as it formulated a national television system. The first opportunity came with the Sixth Report and Order, when the FCC made no provision for tailoring signal contours to existing communities. The second came when the FCC established program guidelines for new TV licensees and mandated a broad, amorphous community to be served by local programming. Such communities often bore little relation to local political, cultural, or social units. These spatial dimensions, which efficiently served network advertisers, still exist in many U.S. television communities.

Neo-liberal ruptures: Local political entities and neighbourhood networks in El Alto, Bolivia

In October 2003, hundreds of thousands of Bolivians took to the streets demanding the resignation of President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada. After 20 years of neo-liberal policies – and the failures to improve the living conditions of the majority – the proposal to export natural gas via Chile was taken by the population as yet another step to sustain an unjust political order. Facing a direct challenge by the population the Sánchez de Lozada administration responded with indiscriminate military force. The result was 63 dead and over 300 wounded, which deepened and extended the social rage and eventually forced the resignation of the President. The neo-liberal project – promoted and defended by Sánchez de Lozada – collapsed. The city of El Alto was the epicentre of the challenges to the legitimacy of this political order. This article focuses on the role of local political entities and neighbourhood networks from El Alto in articulating political spaces that challenged the legitimacy of the institutional infrastructure and led to the October 2003 ruptures in the neo-liberal project. Furthermore, I make the case that the particular histories and memories (of “relocalized” miners and indigenous/peasants) that converged in and defined this city were pivotal in the organization of a “political subsoil” that surged to the surface during the October 2003 events.

Will China Democratize? Confronting a Classic Dilemma

Will China Democratize?Confronting a Classic Dilemma Michel Oksenberg (bio) Since the brutal suppression of student demonstrations in June 1989, China scholars have waged a vigorous debate about the prospects for a democratic transition in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Roughly speaking, three views exist. The first stresses the strengths and resiliency of the existing authoritarian arrangements. The second emphasizes their weaknesses. The third focuses less on the toughness or fragility of the current political system, and looks instead at the long-term democratizing implications of economic and social change. The first school argues that China’s institutional arrangements are deeply embedded in society, and are yielding sufficient economic resources and coercive capabilities to keep the communist elite in power indefinitely. This elite is determined to maintain its power through authoritarian rule. The regime’s performance, as reflected in high economic growth and the avoidance of a Soviet-style social and political collapse, garners it a required minimum of support from relevant sectors of society. Institutional developments such as village elections and the strengthening of the National People’s Congress, which are often cited as evidence of democratization, are still in an incipient stage. They face considerable opposition and an uncertain future, and it is too early to say whether they will lead to democracy. Moreover, these promising developments have not prevented the regime from increasing its capacity to suppress dissent and quell unrest through expanded surveillance and the strengthening of the People’s Armed Police. The trends of the past two decades point less toward democracy than toward the rise of a corrupt “soft” authoritarianism not unlike that found [End Page 27] in Suharto’s Indonesia or Park Chung Hee’s South Korea. Only a calamity severe enough to divide and paralyze the top leadership and rouse widespread social unrest could fundamentally threaten the regime. And any such collapse would more likely unleash widespread violence and chaos, followed by the reimposition of authoritarian rule, than bring about democracy. Adherents of this first view also find little support for democracy in Chinese political thought, whether traditional or contemporary. They typically believe that the 1989 demonstrations were not fundamentally democratic in nature, and furnished little evidence of an emerging civil society. Finally, these analysts tend to think that the Chinese dissident community will have little influence over China’s future. The second opinion claims that: 1) the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is moribund; 2) the central state is losing power relative to provincial and local political units; 3) the regime is losing popular support; 4) the armed forces may no longer be willing to carry out a crackdown like that of 1989; and 5) growing corruption is corroding the regime’s legitimacy and effectiveness. Proponents of this view find evidence of some of the same dynamics that destroyed communism in the former Soviet bloc. They also look upon the 1989 demonstrations as indicating a popular yearning for democracy and a potential for the formation of a civil society. They find support for democracy in traditional Chinese political thought, and even more so in the recent work of Chinese political thinkers who hail from Hong Kong and Taiwan but have influence on the mainland as well. Such analysts usually believe that political dissidents, whether living abroad or imprisoned in China, are likely to play an important role in the years ahead. The third set of analysts finds encouragement in China’s openness to the outside world and the country’s dramatic move away from socialist planning and the command economy. These analysts point to the inevitable political consequences of economic growth, the communications revolution, and the emergence of a more diverse society and an urban middle class. They tend to see in China the same economic and sociological processes that have led to democracy elsewhere in East and Southeast Asia. They stress the importance of a range of recent reforms, including village elections; the strengthening of people’s assemblies at all levels of the hierarchy; the formation of government-licensed nongovernmental organizations; the development of a legal system; the expansion of the media and the beginnings of investigative journalism; and the leadership’s acceptance of a species of interest-based...