ABSTRACT
China has witnessed dramatic changes in its central-local relations. Due to its vast territory, huge population, and social-economic complexity, the handling of China's central-local relationship has historically gone to the very heart of Chinese politics. The rise and fall of numerous dynasties were also closely related to their handling of the central-local relationship. State capacity thus is increasingly seen as the key variable in differentiating the variations in national experiences and the outcomes of various state-sponsored programs. There are also an increasing number of publications that specifically link domestic structure and its impact on state capacity to the shaping and implementation of the national strategies of foreign economic policy among developed countries. The centralized system itself also showed inherent deficiencies that in many ways precipitated the post-Mao reform process. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
