This book reveals the complex relationship between elite perceptions and behaviour, and governance, in China. It moves away from existing scholarship by focusing on functionaries, grass-roots elites, leading intellectuals, and opinion-makers in China and by looking beyond the top leadership, makes a significant contribution to our understanding of shared governance and broadened political participation in China.The chapters explore the elites' role as opinion-makers, technical experts, producers of knowledge, and executives or managers, and pose a number of questions, the answers to which are crucial to understanding future political and economic development in China.

1. Elites and Governance in China 2. Discourses of Justice and Class 3. The Role of Intellectual Elites in China's Political Reform 4. Moving between the "Inner Circle" and the "Outer Circle" 5. Elites and the Transformation of China's Built Environment 6. Community Governance and Elite Activism in Urban China 7. Intermediate Associations, Grassroots Elites and Collective Petitions in Rural China 8. Information Collection and Anti-corruption in China

Xiaowei Zang is Professor and Head of the School of East Asian Studies at the University of Sheffield, UK.

Chien-wen Kou is Professor in the Department of Political Science and Director of the Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies, National Chengchi University, Taiwan.