Review "How has China navigated the dangerous shoals of explosive growth with less urban unrest and brutal repression than other nations? In this lucid, convincing, study of the prevention of slums and the dispersal of dissent, backed by impressive comparative and historical evidence, Wallace has made a lasting contribution to our understanding of urbanization and political stability." --James C. Scott, Yale University "In Cities and Stability, Wallace examines the relationship between urban concentration and political stability in nondemocratic regimes, with special attention to China. By skillfully combining the political economy of urban bias with in-depth examinations of China's development, Wallace has produced a stimulating and thought-provoking study. This timely book is an important contribution to the political economy of development and deserves a broad readership." --Dali Yang, The University of Chicago "A rich and expertly-written book which addresses a series of interrelated puzzles of Chinese politics. Why are there relatively few urban slums in China? What are the politics behind the CCP's move away from policies favoring urban areas? And how has effective management of urban populations increased the durability of the Chinese regime? Cities and Stability is an important and ambitious book which tackles all three of these critical questions." --Lisa Blaydes, Stanford University Read more About the Author Jeremy L. Wallace is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the Ohio State University. Read more
Y**W
A rarely studied area
The author deserves credit for pointing to an understudied area: the political development in the process of China's industrialization and urbanization. Specifically, Wallace examines why Chinese cities are stable and free of slums in general even though there have been a flux of rural-urban migrants streaming to the cities. Hundreds of millions of migrants have moved to the cities from the countryside and this is something that outsiders in other societies could barely imagine. So far in literature there has been just few scholars whose works have shed light on this critical issue: migration and politics. Actually, I believe that Wallace has unveiled a secret that why hukou is one of the fundamental institutions in contemporary China: for Chinese top leaders, the bigger cities, even though economically rational, the more seeds of social unrest. They have long concerned about negative effect of massive migration flow. While many believe that it is hukou that has prevented the formation of slums in Chinese cities, Wallace has noted what the leaders care more about is actually the stability of the regime.Few shortcomings in the book: 1. "urban bias" might not be a term that can be applied to the Chinese context. In the Chinese case, there is neither so-called "urban class" nor "rural class" defined by Lipton. Since the 1949 revolution, the Chinese society has been completely atomized and there is no room for a "class". 2. it seems the book does not explain sufficiently why the city is an important part of the longevity of the regime. I think Oi (in Varshney 1993) has a say on this issue. And 3. it seems the book overemphasizes how hukou has separated China's population. For readers who are not familiar this issue, as a result, they might ignore a more important fact that the labor force provided by Chinese migrant workers is critical to China's economic growth. But these are just minor problems anyway.Great work!
S**A
The nicest book available on China's contemporary political economy
I had been telling students for years that policy in China (and most other developing countries) was anti-peasant, based on my own casual observation and sense of politics. This book gives both a theoretical basis for this, and then backs it with empirical analysis. Wallace begins with the general case, then applies it to China. Be warned though that it is a revised PhD thesis and so goes into more detail than needed on details of his data and empirical methods and so on. (I assume that's the case - I don't have the book in front of me). Readers can readily skim or skip those sections.The bottom line: I assign it to students in the Chinese Economy that I've been teaching for the past 30 years.
D**S
NY Times author interview
I haven't bought this book but probably will (I had to give a star rating to post this).For those interested there is a review/interview with author in today's NY Times:http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/01/04/q-and-a-jeremy-wallace-on-chinas-rush-to-urbanize/Q. and A.: Jeremy Wallace on China’s Rush to UrbanizeBy IAN JOHNSON JANUARY 4, 2015
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