Barrett L. McCormick

The Limits of Anti-Liberalism

S cholars in china and chinese studies commonly think of culture as an autonomous and transcendental force that defines agents and institutions and determines the outcome of events. They often conclude that Chinas allegedly illiberal authoritarian culture inevitably generates authoritarian politics. In this article we will bring culture down to earth by arguing that it is not transcendental but entangled in reciprocal relationships with various social institutions, not the least of which are politics and political institutions. If culture is not fixed in a realm beyond everything else, then rehearsing traditional accounts of traditional culture is not enough to distinguish the range of possible futures. Instead, we have to look at why people have the ideas they have and how they can and might change.

Factors associated with nurses' perceptions of patient safety culture in China: a cross-sectional survey study.

Objective: To explore nurses’ perceptions of patient safety culture and factors associated with those perceptions.

Remaking the Chinese Leviathan: Market Transition and the Politics of Governance in China

Remaking the Chinese Leviathan: Market Transition and the Politics of Governance in China. By Dali L. Yang. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004. 432p.

Book review: China’s Party Congress: Power, Legitimacy, and Institutional ManipulationWuGuoguang, China’s Party Congress: Power, Legitimacy, and Institutional Manipulation. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015; xi + 368 pp. with notes, bibliography, index, and tables: 9781107082021, US

60.00. Dali L. Yang argues a thesis many would like to find true. In China, he argues, markets have created pressure for limited, effective, and transparent government. Crises in the 1990s and since led Chinese leaders to implement reforms with these goals. They have achieved considerable if not complete success, and this leaves China better prepared for democracy. This thesis is most clearly stated in the conclusion. The first chapter offers an introduction and historical overview. Each of the intervening seven chapters documents and assesses a particular type of reform.

103.00 (hbk)

to credit for small and medium enterprises, promoting labour market mobility and providing laid-off employees with a social safety net and skills training, reforming the household registration system, and investing in research and development. Not surprisingly, Cai disagrees with the massive stimulus package that was implemented to cope with the 2008 financial crisis. In his view, the measures produced negative consequences such as persisting traditional growth patterns, overcapacity in several industrial sectors, and debt burdens. On the whole, Cai has presented a coherent set of arguments and a powerful case for a supply side approach to current socio-economic challenges, and he is optimistic about China’s growth prospects. Though conscious of resistance from vested interests, he does not dwell on how to handle this tricky challenge. Unlike many Western researchers, Cai shies away from addressing the issue of political reform as a possible solution. Criticism aside, the two books are a good read. Both authors provide a valuable service to students and researchers of the Chinese economy by presenting background facts and arguments, interesting perspectives and new arguments to understand this important subject.

Book Review: Young Nam CHO, Local People’s Congresses in China: Development and Transition. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009. xiii + 191 pp., with notes, index, and tables. ISBN: 978-0-521-51562-7 (hc). Price: US

Young Nam Cho finds that local people’s congresses are becoming stronger and promoting the institutionalization of Chinese politics. Cho interviewed relevant people in China from 1996 through 2006 and read extensive Chinese literature. Some of the chapters look at activities of local people’s congresses such as lawmaking, supervising governments, and supervising courts while others consider theoretical issues such as the degree to which deputies to local people’s congresses fulfill their official roles, the relationship between local people’s congresses and social organizations, and the development of local legislatures. Cho’s argument has admirable theoretical crispness. He draws on Kevin O’Brien to discuss “reform without liberalization” and the finding that local people’s congresses try to increase their power by attaching themselves to the Party rather than asserting autonomy. The argument in each of the chapters is carefully related to important disputes, such as in the chapter on legislatures and social organizations which takes on civil society versus corporatism. Cho’s careful enumeration of the pros and cons of relevant theories makes this an excellent book for a graduate seminar. The author’s own argument is carefully nuanced. He argues that the introduction of a market economy and the policy of legalization have increased the strength of local people’s congresses. The chapter on lawmaking finds the Shanghai People’s Congress engaged with a wide variety of social groups who actively work to influence legislation and concludes that most lawmaking takes place without direct Party supervision, except in a few cases when the legislation is important, sensitive, or difficult. While Cho argues that the overall relationship between the legislatures, the Party, and constituents is cooperative rather than conflictual, he still finds legislatures strengthened. While he qualifies findings on social organizations with the observation that “active participation in lawmaking tends to be limited to a few cases that are directly concerned with their critical interests” (p. 41), he concludes that social organizations’ participation exceeds the bounds of state corporatism even if it is not sufficient to fit a “civil society” model. Cho also finds legislative supervision of government increasingly important, but again, within limits. Legislatures have less political status than the government and the Party. Local governments set legislative budgets so Book Rview s