It has often been argued that China will follow an incremental path to political reform, just as its economic reforms followed a gradual course. Indeed, it seemed that China was embarking on such a course in the 1990s, but political reform has stalled. This book uses case studies of prominent reform efforts to understand both why reform was started and why it has stalled. It draws on the literature on institutions and authoritarian political systems and so will appeal to students of comparative politics as well as those interested in China.