This text describes and analyses how politics among the Chinese leadership has operated and evolved from the period of Mao' court up to 2002. Part I explores the politics of Mao and Deng. Part II explores and analyzes the ongoing changes in Chinese politics during Jiang's tenure.

I: The Nature of Politics Under Mao and Deng; 1: Modernizing Chinese Informal Politics *; 2: Factions and the Politics of Guanxi: Paradoxes in Chinese Administrative and Political Behaviour; 3: The Paradoxical Post-Mao Transition: From Obeying the Leader to "Normal Politics" *; 4: Chinese Politics at the Top: Factionalism or Informal Politics? Balance-of-Power Politics or a Game to Win All? *; 5: Factionalism in Chinese Politics from a New Institutionalist Perspective *; 6: Reflections on Elite Informal Politics; II: The Nature of Politics Under Jiang; 7: China's Political System: Challenges of the Twenty-First Century; 8: Jiang Zemin's Style of Rule: Go for Stability, Monopolize Power and Settle for Limited Effectiveness; 9: The Changing Form and Dynamics of Power Politics; 10: Normal Politics with Chinese Characteristics *; 11: The Evolving Shape of Elite Politics *; 12: The Supreme Leader and the Military; 13: The Delayed Institutionalization of Leadership Politics