Review by Choice Review
Why has economic transition been so smooth and successful in China? Lai (East Asia Institute, National Univ. of Singapore) seeks to answer this question by illuminating the internal political dynamics of the process. The main theme is that reformers were quite adept at the political process: forging key alliances; expanding the number of people dependent on and therefore supportive of reform; reducing the potential for failure in the early reforms by providing necessary central government support; and selecting geographic areas to implement the reforms that had the most advantageous initial conditions. In addition, the reformers avoided antagonizing key conservatives within the party by maintaining the existing political structure. Besides its use for understanding China's transition, this volume contributes to an understanding of the dynamics of economic transition more generally, particularly in the context of changes initiated and carried out by the very governmental bureaucracy that lorded over the pre-reform economic structure. Unfortunately, similar studies of the Meiji Restoration or transitions out of feudal structures in Europe are not available; nevertheless, this study has implications for these past, as well as future, transitions. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. General readers; students, lower-division undergraduate and up; faculty and researchers. S. J. Gabriel Mount Holyoke College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
