Introduction

This chapter introduces the aims of this edited book and provides an overview of the content and contribution of the remaining chapters. The aims of researching China’s policy processes in this book include: 1) contributing to the debates about the characteristics of China’s political systems; and 2) applying and adapting theories and frameworks of policy processes developed in Western democracies to China. The book takes a broad approach to study China’s policy processes, focusing not only on traditional topics such as agenda setting and policy change, but also on political-administrative relations, the design of the policy mix, and delivering service contracts in the communities. The book studies governance mechanisms and institutions currently being under-researched in the literature of policy processes, such as mass line, tiao-kuai coordination, and people’s congress. One chapter is a comparative analysis of three social enterprises in Taiwan, providing a case of non-governmental actors’ (lack of) influence on policies in a context different from mainland China.