Leadership on the China Coast

Book excerpt: Originally published in 1984, Leadership on the China Coast brings together four independent empirical studies of leadership exercised on China’s southern coastland. Written by academics from across several disciplines, the book presents a wealth of research on methods of constructing authority in China, and on informal politics as a process integrated with formal bureaucratic administrations in which idiosyncratic leadership operates on all levels under shared ideological and legal constraints. Leadership on the China Coast will appeal to those with an interest in the social and political history of China.