Alternate Civilities is an anthropologist's answer to the argument that China's cultural tradition renders it incapable of achieving an open political system. It compares China with the vibrant democracy that has developed over the last decade in Taiwan.

Robert Paul Weller has been doing research on local life in China and Taiwan for over two decades. His other books include Resistance, Chaos, and Control in China: Taiping Rebels, Taiwanese Ghosts, and TiananmenUnities and Diversities in Chinese Religions, and several edited works. He is research associate at the Institute for the Study of Economic Culture and associate professor of anthropology at Boston University.

1 Culture, Economy, and the Roots of Civil Change, 2 Legacies, 3 The Limits to Authority, 4 Business and the Limits to Civil Association, 5 Religion: Local Association and Split Market Cultures, 6 Forms of Association and Social Action, 7 Alternate Civilities and Political Change