Abstract China has undergone dramatically social, economical and political transitions since the launch of opening and reform policy in1978. In transitional China, local governance has received intensive scholarly interests. Among the studies of urban China, overseas scholars are active and contribute to theorization greatly. The aim of this paper is to review the existing literature on China's changing local governance, focusing on overseas scholars' contributions. The paper involves three aspects, including the general background of transition, theoretical debate on the role of local government, and new directions for further research. Regarding the context of China's changing local governance, this study highlights the triple processes of decentralization, globalization and marketization. Through decentralization, local governments have become active agents with their interests in local economic development. The deepening process of globalization has induced heavy competition for mobile capitals among local governments, leading to governance restructuring. The shift from centrally planned economy to socialist market economy has also exerted impacts on local governance restructuring, due to the emerging of various non-state sectors. For the theoretical debate on the role of local government in economic and urban development, which is essential for understanding the changing of local governance, this study summarizes two major perspectives——strong local state and ineffective state. The author argues that the analysis of local government's role in economic and urban development is affected by four factors. They are government scalars on which the role of local government is examined, political and economic statuses of localities, geographical foundation, theories and approaches adopted for studies. Based on the existing literature, this study highlights two directions for further research——deepening the understanding of China's local governance (intra-jurisdiction) and inter-jurisdiction relationship. Regarding local governance in intra-jurisdiction, further studies should direct attention to stakeholder analysis and interaction among stakeholders. Stakeholders include not only government, but also non-governmental organization, community, media, private sectors, etc. In addition, the governing process, especially the process of coalition building and policy-making, should be investigated for deepening the understanding of changing local governance.
2009, Vol. 24 
