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The dominant approach to the study of contemporary Chinese politics seems to be that the Chinese political system can best be understood from the perspective of authoritarianism. Important early works within this paradigm by Kenneth Lieberthal and Michel Oksenberg (Policy Making in China, 1988) and Kenneth Lieberthal and David Lampton (Bureaucracy, Politics, and Decision Making in Post-Mao China, 1992) stressed the fragmented nature of Chinese authoritarianism. Andrew Nathan coined the concept "resilient authoritarianism" in his article of that title (Journal of Democracy, Vol. 14, No. 1, 2003), stressing that not only was China an authoritarian political system, but it was also resilient and not about to wither away. In a forthcoming article in The China Quarterly I argue that the Chinese system is characterized by "integrated fragmentation." The concept denotes that the system is fragmented, yet it is holding together by mechanisms and measures of integration (appointment system, rotation, etc.).
Pierre Landry, in this excellent book, is also informed by the notion of authoritarianism, coining the concept of "decentralized authoritarianism." The key argument of the book is that although the Chinese reform process has resulted in extensive decentralization, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)...