EVENT: Governing and Ruling: The Political Logic of Taxation in China

Rapid social economic changes, the transition from a planned economy to a market economy, or even economic liberalization can lead to political instability and the collapse of authoritarian regimes. Despite experiencing all of these unprecedented changes in the past forty years, China under the Chinese Communist Party’s leadership has so far successfully transformed and improved both its governance capacity and its ruling capacity. Professor Changdong Zhang’s recent book, Governing and Ruling: The Political Logic of Taxation in China (University of Michigan Press, 2021), addresses this regime resilience puzzle by examining the political logic of China’s taxation system, especially the ways in which taxation helps China handle three governance problems: maneuvering social control, improving agent discipline, and eliciting cooperation.