Joseph Fewsmith is Professor of International Relations and Political Science at Boston University. He is the author of China since Tiananmen: From Deng Xiaoping to Hu Jintao (2008), which is the second edition of China since Tiananmen (2001); Elite Politics in Contemporary China (2001); The Dilemmas of Reform in China: Political Conflict and Economic Debate (1994); and Party, State, and Local Elites in Republican China: Merchant Organizations and Politics in Shanghai, 1980–1930 (1985). He is the editor of China Today, China Tomorrow (2010) and co-editor, with Zheng Yongnian, of China's Opening Society (2008). He is very active in the China field, traveling to China frequently and presenting papers at professional conferences such as the Association for Asian Studies and the American Political Science Association. His articles have appeared in such journals as The China Quarterly, Asian Survey, The Journal of Contemporary China, Modern China and Comparative Studies in Society and History. He is one of seven regular contributors to China Leadership Monitor, a quarterly web publication analyzing current developments in China. He is also an associate of the John King Fairbank Center for East Asian Studies at Harvard University and of the Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer Range Future at Boston University.

'In recent years, grassroots political reforms in China have drawn much hopeful attention in the West … But Fewsmith's careful analyses of roughly a dozen such experiments show that none was democratic in the Western sense.' Andrew J. Nathan, Foreign Affairs

• 1. The problem of governance in China; 2. Bottom-up reform versus top-down development; 3. Inner-party democracy; 4. Wenzhou: social capital without civil society; 5. Consultative authoritarianism: the Wenling model; 6. Conclusion.

Joseph Fewsmith is Professor of International Relations and Political Science at Boston University. He is the author of China since Tiananmen: From Deng Xiaoping to Hu Jintao (2008), which is the second edition of China since Tiananmen (2001); Elite Politics in Contemporary China (2001); The Dilemmas of Reform in China: Political Conflict and Economic Debate (1994); and Party, State, and Local Elites in Republican China: Merchant Organizations and Politics in Shanghai, 1980–1930 (1985). He is the editor of China Today, China Tomorrow (2010) and co-editor, with Zheng Yongnian, of China's Opening Society (2008). He is very active in the China field, traveling to China frequently and presenting papers at professional conferences such as the Association for Asian Studies and the American Political Science Association. His articles have appeared in such journals as The China Quarterly, Asian Survey, The Journal of Contemporary China, Modern China and Comparative Studies in Society and History. He is one of seven regular contributors to China Leadership Monitor, a quarterly web publication analyzing current developments in China. He is also an associate of the John King Fairbank Center for East Asian Studies at Harvard University and of the Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer Range Future at Boston University.

'In recent years, grassroots political reforms in China have drawn much hopeful attention in the West … But Fewsmith's careful analyses of roughly a dozen such experiments show that none was democratic in the Western sense.' Andrew J. Nathan, Foreign Affairs

• 1. The problem of governance in China; 2. Bottom-up reform versus top-down development; 3. Inner-party democracy; 4. Wenzhou: social capital without civil society; 5. Consultative authoritarianism: the Wenling model; 6. Conclusion.

Joseph Fewsmith is Professor of International Relations and Political Science at Boston University. He is the author of China since Tiananmen: From Deng Xiaoping to Hu Jintao (2008), which is the second edition of China since Tiananmen (2001); Elite Politics in Contemporary China (2001); The Dilemmas of Reform in China: Political Conflict and Economic Debate (1994); and Party, State, and Local Elites in Republican China: Merchant Organizations and Politics in Shanghai, 1980–1930 (1985). He is the editor of China Today, China Tomorrow (2010) and co-editor, with Zheng Yongnian, of China's Opening Society (2008). He is very active in the China field, traveling to China frequently and presenting papers at professional conferences such as the Association for Asian Studies and the American Political Science Association. His articles have appeared in such journals as The China Quarterly, Asian Survey, The Journal of Contemporary China, Modern China and Comparative Studies in Society and History. He is one of seven regular contributors to China Leadership Monitor, a quarterly web publication analyzing current developments in China. He is also an associate of the John King Fairbank Center for East Asian Studies at Harvard University and of the Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer Range Future at Boston University.

'In recent years, grassroots political reforms in China have drawn much hopeful attention in the West … But Fewsmith's careful analyses of roughly a dozen such experiments show that none was democratic in the Western sense.' Andrew J. Nathan, Foreign Affairs

• 1. The problem of governance in China; 2. Bottom-up reform versus top-down development; 3. Inner-party democracy; 4. Wenzhou: social capital without civil society; 5. Consultative authoritarianism: the Wenling model; 6. Conclusion.