This book is the first attempt to conceptualize China's central-local relations from the behavioral perspective. Although China does not have a federalist system of government, the author believes that, with deepening reform and openness, China's central-local relations is increasingly functioning on federalist principles. Federalism as a functioning system in China is under studied. The author defines the political system existing in China as "de facto federalism", and provides a detailed analysis of its sources and dynamics in the book. The system is mainly driven by two related factors -- inter-governmental decentralization and globalization. While economic decentralization since the 1980s has led to the formation of de facto federalism, globalization since the 1990s has accelerated this process and generated increasingly high pressure on the Chinese leadership to institutionalize de facto federalism by various measures of selective recentralzation.

郑永年（1962—），浙江省余姚人。中国政治、社会问题与国际关系专家，现任新加坡国立大学东亚研究所所长，中国华南理工大学公共政策研究院学术委员会主席，《国际中国研究杂志》(国际社会科学核心期刊)和《东亚政策》主编，罗特里奇出版社《中国政策丛书》主编和世界科技书局《当代中国研究丛书》共同主编。历任北京大学政治与行政管理系助教、讲师，新加坡国立大学东亚研究所研究员、资深研究员，英国诺丁汉大学中国政策研究所教授和研究主任。先后获得美国社会科学研究会/麦克阿瑟基金会和美国麦克阿瑟基金会(2003-2005)研究基金的资助。其主要从事中国内部转型及其外部关系研究，主要研究兴趣和领域包括民族主义与国际关系；东亚地区安全；中国外交政策；全球化、国家制度和社会转型；技术变革与政治转型；社会运动与民主化；中国政治与中央地方关系。