Relations between the rural populace and the grass-roots levels of government vary enormously across China. A key reason, we have discovered during research in a range of rural districts, is that the very nature of the power wielded by a local rural government today is strongly influenced by the extent of local industrialization and, just as importantly, by the type of factory ownership that pr...

This article attempts to present the local governments’ executives with a number of options to consider as they deal with the complex and ever changing questions of financial management for the local community. The paper provides local government officials quick access to a framework of ideas and suggestions that work within the hierarchy of financial management. Finance is immensely important ...

This paper uses political reservations for women in India to study the impact of women’s leadership on policy decisions. Since the mid 1990’s, one third of Village Council head positions in India have been randomly reserved for a woman: In these councils only women could be elected to the position of head. Village Councils are responsible for the provision of many local public goods in rural ar...

This chapter traces how British and Dutch colonial officials gathered and organized knowledge on Islamic law in the British Straits Settlements (Penang, Malacca and Singapore) and the Netherlands Indies (present-day Indonesia) respectively. Despite clear differences between the legal systems and administrative structures of the two colonies, colonial authorities shared a considerable amount of ...