This book examines the connection between central-local government relations and the transition of contemporary China, the urbanization process and social development. Based on empirical investigations and theoretical research, it argues that this is the key to understanding the transition of central-local government relations from the overall fiscal rationing system in the 1980s and the tax distribution system in the 1990s. The former system provided the incentive for local government to “set up a number of enterprises” and resulted in rapid local industrialization, while the latter system enabled the local governments to move from “operating the enterprises” to “operating the land and cities”. The book analyzes two aspects of the profound impact of the change in central-local government relations on the behavior of local governments: land quota acquisition and urbanization, thus providing valuable insights into the economic and social development of contemporary China.

Zhou Feizhou, Sociological Professor of Peking University, primarily studies on the central-local government relation, behaviour of local government, and urbanization, with major works as Systematic Transition and Industrialization in Rural Area, Benefitting from Profit: Fiscal Relation and Behaviour of Local Government, and Reform of Land Systems and Change of Developing Modes, as well as theses issued in academic periodicals as China’s Social Science, Sociological Study and Society.

Tan Mingzhi, currently works with Land Renovation Center, Minister of Land and Resources, who graduates from Sociology Department of Peking University for postgraduate study and from Sociology Department of Zhejiang University for undergraduate study. He lays his research emphasis on land systems and issues in rural areas and takes several parts in the topic discussion organized by the Development Research Center of State Council and Sociology Department of Peking University.