End of an Era: How China's Authoritarian Revival is Undermining Its Rise

China's reform era is ending due to political stability, ideological openness, and rapid economic growth unraveling. Beijing's leaders have rejected fundamental reform of their authoritarian one-party political system, leading to political turmoil, internal unrest, and populist movements. A closer look at China's reform era reveals a frozen political system, economic cleavages, social unrest, and ideological polarization. China's leaders are cannibalizing institutional norms and practices, giving way to technocratic rule and black-box purges, and collective governance sliding back towards single-man rule. The post-1978 era of reform and opening up is ending, and uncertainty hangs in the air as a new future slouches towards Beijing.

Format: Hardback
Length: 296 pages
Publication date: 07 June 2018
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc

China's reform era is coming to an end. The core factors that defined it, including political stability, ideological openness, and rapid economic growth, are unraveling. Since the 1990s, Beijing's leaders have steadfastly rejected any fundamental reform of their authoritarian one-party political system, even as a decades-long boom has reshaped China's economy and society. On the surface, their efforts have been successful. Political turmoil has toppled former Communist East bloc regimes, internal unrest has overtaken Middle East nations, and populist movements have challenged established Western democracies. China, in contrast, has appeared a relative haven of stability and growth.

However, a closer look at China's reform era reveals a different truth. Over the past three decades, a frozen political system has fueled the rise of entrenched interests within the Communist Party itself, and the systematic underdevelopment of institutions of governance among state and society at large. Economic cleavages have widened. Social unrest has worsened. Ideological polarization has deepened.

Now, to address these looming problems, China's leaders are progressively cannibalizing institutional norms and practices that have formed the bedrock of the regime's stability in the reform era. Technocratic rule is giving way to black-box purges; collective governance is sliding back towards single-man rule. The post-1978 era of reform and opening up is ending. China is closing down. Uncertainty hangs in the air as a new future slouches towards Beijing to be born.

End of an Era explains how China arrived at this dangerous turning point, and outlines the potential outcomes that could result.

Weight: 572g
Dimension: 238 x 172 x 24 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780190672089