THE CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY IN REFORM

THE CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY IN REFORM. Edited by Kjeld Erik Brodsgaard and ZhengYongnian. New York:Routledge, 2006. ix, 268pp. (Tables, figures.) US$120, cloth. ISBN 0-415-37477-4.

Although the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been a ruling party for almost 60 years, few recent books focus directly on the party or the challenges it faces. This book is one of the few and follows a similar volume by the co-editors (Bunging the Party Back In: How China is Governed, Singapore: Eastern Universities Press, 2004). The book covers a variety of topics: party organization and personnel policy (Andrew Walder, John Burns, Kjeld-Erik Brodsgaard, and Maria Heimer) ; its relations with other key institutions (You Ji, Zou Keyuan, Ignatius Wibowo and Lye Liang Fook); its relations with society (Akio Takahara and Robert Benewick, and Cai Yongshun); and prospects for democratization (He Baogang, Chien-min Chao and Yeau-tarn Lee, and ZhengYongnian). With the exception ofWalder, none of the authors is based in North America. One of the strengths of the book is that it offers fresh perspectives...