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This article examines the economic development process underlying Shanghai's rapid urban transformation in the 1990s. It analyses the key factors that have contributed to the economic development there and assesses critically the role of the state in this process. It concludes that the sheer scale of investment and the national contexts, rather than far-sighted economic management at the local level, are the keys to its economic success. The article further argues that the prevailing views regarding the local state-market relationship in Shanghai need to be revised: beneath the façade of a proactive and omnipotent state are numerous instances of failure and ineffectiveness. Moreover, the market is much more than a tool in the state's decision-making. It is a growing force that the state is trying hard to control, but with increasing difficulties.

The Chinese central-provincial fiscal relationship of the reform era has been at the centre of academic attention in the last few years. It is rapidly becoming one of the most researched areas regarding China. Despite numerous publications, however, there are still some crucial issues that have not been sufficiently elucidated. First, the emphasis of discussions so far has been on formal budgetary relations, particularly the distributive pattern of revenue collection. In reality, the scope and impact of the Chinese budget are very much smaller than those elsewhere and the pattern of revenue collection is only one aspect of the multi-faceted central-provincial fiscal relationship. An appreciation of these aspects and their implications requires a better understanding of the full range of arenas in which the Chinese central government interacts with the provinces over public finance than is currently available. Secondly, it is generally accepted that the Chinese central-provincial fiscal relationship has been decentralized during the reform era, and that this change has underpinned the growing strength of the provinces and the decline in central power. However, the change in the relationship is actually more complex than one-dimensional decentralization would suggest, and the link between fiscal decentralization and political decentralization is less straightforward from a comparative perspective. Thirdly, it is widely accepted that there has been a fiscal decline in China and that the revenue-sharing system – implemented up to 1993 – was the cause of this decline. From this understanding, erroneous conclusions have been drawn. On the one hand, some scholars suggest that this decline signifies a limit on the Chinese state in its relation to the economy, and it is this factor that has underpinned the success of the Chinese economy during the reform. On the other, this decline is considered to epitomize the emergence of a "weak centre, strong localities" situation in China that may eventually lead to the disintegration of the Chinese political system. But it is far from established that there has indeed been a fiscal decline in the true sense of the term. The same can be said on the question of this decline, if it exists, representing the limiting of the Chinese state in relation to the economy or the decline of the central power relative to that of the provinces. Fourthly, in 1994 the Chinese government launched important reforms to the central-provincial fiscal relationship, aiming to replace the previous revenue-sharing system with a tax-sharing system (TSS, or fenshuizhi), and ultimately to stem so-called fiscal decline. Despite earlier reported problems, recent official reports have claimed substantial success of this reform in terms of improvement in the so-called "two ratios" – the ratio of budgetary revenue to GDP, and the ratio of central budgetary revenue to total budgetary revenue. What do these two ratios signify? How should we interpret such success? Does the success on the one hand confirm the allegation that the revenue-sharing system was the cause of the Chinese fiscal decline? And does it on the other hand indicate a strengthening in the centre's power relative to the provinces'?

Population aging has become more and more severe in many countries. As a result, the demand for basic elderly care services has risen. The establishment of an evaluation index system for basic elderly care services can provide guidelines for governments to improve the quality of such services. Based on the "5A" theoretical analysis framework of Penchansky and Thomas, this paper introduces the concept of "accessibility" into evaluation. The "accessibility" model of services, through a literature review, field research, and three rounds of expert correspondence, consists of three first-level indicators, including the accessibility of home-based community elderly care services, the accessibility of institutional elderly care services, and the accessibility of administrative services. The evaluation index system of 15 s-level indicators and 70 third-level indicators, using AHP to determine the weight value of each indicator, provides a quantitative basis for the quality evaluation and improvement of basic elderly care services. Based on our quantitative results, policy recommendations are put forward: strengthen the support for the human and financial resources of community home-based elderly care services; improve the affordability of basic elderly care services; increase the types and numbers of institutional elderly care service projects; improve the availability and adaptability of institutional elderly care services; improve the accessibility of administrative services so that elderly care service institutions and elderly care administrative agencies can establish an effective communication and feedback mechanism.

This book shares with English readers Chinese theoretical and practical explorations of moral education curriculum for primary schools within the basic education curriculum reform project since 2001.The book expounds this moral education curriculum reform and focuses on three main ideas: The curriculum's aim is to enrich children's experiences and reflect their own lives; the curriculum's content is originated from children's lives; the curriculum's structure is developed from children's learning approach in their morality and social study. In this book, light is also shed on how to construct moral education textbooks, direct moral instruction, and moral teacher identity in the perspective of moral learning; how to knit law education and Chinese traditional culture education in moral curriculum. This is the first comprehensive book focusing on Chinese moral education curriculum reform. It will appeal to researchers, research students, and writers of moral education textbooks. It is also suitable for teacher training programs to help future teachers learn about moral education curriculum and help them effectively design and organize it for children's morality study.