Minxin Pei's China's Trapped Transition is a brilliant and fascinating examination of the discrepancy between economic progress and political change in modern China.
Pei draws out two things that stand out for me in the context of governance and social change in the U.K.
The first is the co-optation of the intelligensia in local politics.
The second is the value of "middle-up" initiatives - risk-taking ideas implemented by progressive local officials to remedy local problems. In China in the 1990s, this was manifest in township and village-level elections.
In the U.K. a wristy, anti-intellectualism or splendid isolation prevails that separates the 'hedgehog' from the 'fox' and disallows the engagement of scholars and professionals in local politics and administration.
Then there is our emphasis upon the state or the individual, their effectiveness and power, those at the top or those at the bottom. We have forgotten the opportunities that "the middle" - local government, for example - can realise through progressive, distinctive policy.
