It is well-known to the China watchers that Chinese political history has seen cycles of centralization-decentralization and recentralization. The ruling elite has always grappled with the debate of jiquan versus fenquan and the accompanying impact of the choices exercised on policy making. Ever since the amendment of the 1982 constitution granting Xi Jinping the power to continue as the General secretary and President for life, there has been lot of scholarly debate and discussion as regards its rationale and impact on Chinese policymaking. There is widespread consensus that the Xi Jinping era is characterized by recentralization, but scholarly community is debating its ramifications on the Chinese polity. The book is an endeavor to look at the current phase of recentralization against the larger canvas of Chinese politics dotted by issues which have hindered a nuanced understanding of Chinese politics. The book is divided to three portions. The first part covers some of the issues consequent to the various attempts made by mainland scholars to understand Chinese politics. The contributors in this section have examined the impact of indigenized attempts to study Chinese politics on the overall academic discipline of Political Science. In the second part the respective authors have dealt with some of the current issues like changing political culture caused by the economic modernization, centrallocal relations and their effect on contemporary Chinese politics. The chapters are based on empirical findings in the case of two chapters. More importantly this section of the book examines the above issues in the light of the values and norms in contemporary China. The final portion of the book deals with the various measures initiated by the fifth-generation leadership under President Xi Jinping to ensure rule-based governance. The authors examine the effect of the new initiatives on the party state's' core institutions. In short, the book addresses the various facets of innovation in governance via the `top-level design' reforms under Xi Jinping's leadership. In this regard the book fulfils the much-needed requirement for a scholarly and in-depth understanding of contemporary developments in the arena of domestic politics and governance in PRC.
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