Art of Political Control in China

"Governance is a problem of political control. For governments, the problem is how to control society: how to maintain order, enforce laws, collect revenue, and implement policy. For citizens, the problem is how to control their governments: how to ensure that political leaders respond to their demands and are held accountable if they do not. This problem of political control is especially severe in autocracies like China, where the state reaches further into people's everyday lives and where citizens have fewer avenues for holding officials accountable than in most democracies"--