Improving the Capacity to Govern Based on Rules in China

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12107
• Author: Wen Wang
• Date: 01 September 2013
• Published date: 01 September 2013

Book Reviews 771

Sonia M. Ospina and Rogan Kersh, Editors

Wen Wang

Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis

Improving the Capacity to Govern Based on Rules in China

Shui-Yan Tang, Ten Principles for a Rule-Ordered

Society: Enhancing China’s Governing Capacity

(Beijing: China Economic Publishing House, 2012).

133 pp. $40.99 (cloth), ISBN: 9787513615006.

The question of how to strengthen the imple-

mentation capacity of the Chinese govern-

ment, or the ability to implement policies

based on rules and regulations, was a central issue

among both scholars and government of‌f‌i cials when I

worked for the National Academy of Governance in

China in the 1990s. It was no surprise that, a decade

later, it remained dif‌f‌i cult to get people to follow

rules during policy implementation in China, which

inspired the publication of Shui-Yan Tang’s book

Ten Principles for a Rule-Ordered Society: Enhancing

China’s Governing Capacity. One major governance

problem in China has been the substantial separa-

tion between the policy-making and implementation

systems (Zhao and Peters 2009). Given the fact that

Wen Wang is assistant professor in the

School of Public and Environmental Affairs

at Indiana University–Purdue University

Indianapolis. He holds a doctorate from the

Maxwell School of Syracuse University. His

research interests include capital budgeting

and f‌i nance, education policy and f‌i nance,

and intergovernmental f‌i scal relations.

E-mail: wenwang@gmail.com