中国的改革如同巨龙腾飞，并开始在世界经济中发挥至关重要的作用。为了全面讨论分析中国经济增长的过去、现在与未来，劳伦•勃兰特和托马斯•罗斯基历时8年，组织几十位北美著名的中国经济专家和学者，编撰了一部“工具书”式的手册，内容涉及政治体制、劳动力流动、人口政策、环境和资源保护、教育和科技发展、产业政策，财政分配制度改革、国有企业结构调整、全球化、法制建设、收入差距、地区差异等等，几无遗漏。既有从历史学、发展经济学、政治经济学等角度对中国经济改革的理论阐述；也有从各个经济专题角度详释的中国经济改革的历程；更有从部门结构、收入差距和地区差异角度论述的中国经济改革中的结构性问题；还有对未来（2025年）中国经济增长的展望，可谓是一本关于中国经济大转型的“百科全书”。

In this incisive analysis of one of the most spectacular economic breakthroughs in the Deng era, Jean C. Oi shows how and why Chinese rural-based industry has become the fastest growing economic sector not just in China but in the world. Oi argues that decollectivization and fiscal decentralization provided party officials of the localities—counties, townships, and villages—with the incentives to act as entrepreneurs and to promote rural industrialization in many areas of the Chinese countryside. As a result, the corporatism practiced by local officials has become effective enough to challenge the centrality of the national state.
Dealing not only with the political setting of rural industrial development, Oi's original and strongly argued study also makes a broader contribution to conceptualizations of corporatism in political theory. Oi writes provocatively about property rights and principal-agent relationships and shows the complex financial incentives that underpin and strengthen the growth in local state corporatism and shape its evolution. This book will be essential for those interested in Chinese politics, comparative politics, and communist and post-communist systems.

这部权威著作代表了作者毕生研究民主崩溃、民主转型与民主巩固所达到的顶峰，它在很多领域开辟了新的天地。作者重新概括了当代非民主政体的主要类型，并探讨了每种类型向民主转型的可行道路和民主巩固所要完成的任务。作者提出的对民主的巩固而言必需的五个场域——公民社会、政治社会、法治、官僚机构和经济社会——以及诸如“后全能主义”等更加宽广的分析范畴，将成为规范的分析框架，而他们对前共产主义世界的研究，也标志着苏联学开始回归主流比较政治学。
无可置疑，本书将成为有关建立民主政体的最重要文献。所有对民主感兴趣的人以及研究东欧、中欧和南美的学者都会怀着极大的兴趣来阅读本书。