This new and timely book addresses a series of questions regarding one of the most important political developments in contemporary China: the state-led democratic practice of village self-government in rural areas. Why would an authoritarian state promote grassroots democratic reform? To what extent has this reform changed the local power structures, grassroots governance, and state-peasant relations? What would be the implications of this grassroots democratic reform for China's democratisation in the long run? This book examines the origins, process, and impact of this paradoxical political development and explores the dynamics of political change and mutually transforming relations between the state and society in Post-Mao China. It argues that the practice of village self-government was promoted by the Chinese party-state to cope with the dual crises of legitimacy and governability it had faced in the countryside after a decade of rural economic reforms.