This book constitutes the first comprehensive retrospective on one hundred years of post-dynastic China and compares enduring challenges of governance in the period around the collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1911 to those of contemporary China. The authors examine three key areas of domestic change and policy adaptation: social welfare provision, local political institutional reform, and social and environmental consequences of major infrastructure projects. Demonstrating remarkable parallels between the immediate post-Qing era and the recent phase of Chinese reform since the late-1990s, the book highlights common challenges to the political leadership by tracing dynamics of state activism in crafting new social space and terms of engagement for problem-solving and exploring social forces that continue to undermine the centralizing impetus of the state.

Jean-Marc F. Blanchardis Distinguished Professor, School of Advanced International and Area Studies, East China Normal University, China, and Executive Director of the Mr.& Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations, United States. His research emphasizes foreign investment in and from China, Chinese foreign economic policy, and multinational corporations.
Kun-Chin Lin is University Lecturer in the Department of Politics and International Studies and Director of the Centre for Rising Powers, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. His research covers the political economy of China, transport infrastructure and energy policies, industrial policy and regulation, fiscal federalism, maritime governance, and regionalism in Asia.

Ch 1: Governance, Domestic Change, and Social Policy in China in Historical Perspective (Lin and Blanchard) .- Ch 2: Historical Continuities in Social Assistance in China, 1911 2011 (Hammond) .- Ch 3: As plants grow towards sunlight: Amity Foundations Social Function in Historical Perspective (Wielander) .- Ch 4: Governing Disasters: A Comparative Analysis of the 1931, 1954 and 1998 Middle-Yangzi Floods in Hubei (Courtney) .- Ch 5: Reasons to Dam: Chinas Hydropower Politics and Its Socio- Environmental Consequences (Habich) .- Ch 6: Grassroots Governance Reform in Urban China (Trott) .- Ch 7: Chinas Political Stability: Comparisons and Reflections (Zheng).