China has been enjoying stellar economic growth for more than a quarter of a century. Yet the rapid growth amid market-oriented reforms has not been an unalloyed blessing. The “China Miracle” has been accompanied by soaring income inequality and rising social tensions, over-taxing China’s resource base and contributing to an environmental crisis. Despite substantial improvement in the standard of living and other social indicators, China’s leaders have, in the aftermath of the Tiananmen crackdown, steadfastly held back the opening up of the political system.

In this volume, contributors from the disciplines of economics, political science, and sociology examine how existing institutions, broadly defined, might have exacerbated tensions in China's evolving economy, society and polity as well as how institutional developments have been introduced to deal with existing or emerging conflicts and tensions.

Contents:

• Cornering the Market: State Strategies for Controlling China’s Commercial Media (A Esarey)
• Brewing Tensions while Maintaining Stabilities: The Dual Role of the Hukou System in Contemporary China (F-L Wang)
• Resources and Strategies: Conflicts and Their Consequences in the Chinese Real Estate Market (T Wang & B Li)
• Multifaceted State and Fragmented Society: Dynamics of Environmental Movement in China (Y Sun & D Zhao)
• Food Safety and the Development of Regulatory Institutions in China (W Tam & D L Yang)
• Poverty Reduction, Decentralization, and Local Governance in China (R Tao & M Liu)
• Grain for Green or Grain for Gain: An Empirical Evaluation of the Sloping Land Conversion Program in China (J Xu & R Tao)
• Elections, Governance, and Accountability in Rural China (F Su & D L Yang)