Toward Better Governance in China takes a fresh look at the latest efforts made by Chinese leaders to promote governance-based reform. It asserts that the improvement of governance has now become one of the breakthrough points of the much anticipated political reform. Although the Chinese government continues to play down expectations about political reform, many small-scale reform experiments have been quietly undertaken by Chinese leaders at various levels in recent years, including the new round of administrative reform centered on the creation of "super ministries," the enlargement of inner-party democracy within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the strengthening of local legislative bodies, and judicial reform designed to promote judicial independence and rule of law. This strategy calls for strengthening governing capacity and changing government functions. One of the advantages in placing the improvement of governance first is that it is less risky than embarking upon a full-scaled electoral reform. Electoral democracy is undoubtedly an important element in a functional democracy. But equally important is the effectiveness, transparency, accountability, and openness of the governing process. Better governance implies greater transparency, open deliberation and participation, and less adversarial political confrontation and conflict. If constructed properly, China may become the sort of democratic administration or administrative democracy that Robert Dahl discussed in 1947. Clearly, political reform of this kind does not follow the conventional wisdom of a democratic transition which places heavy emphasis on electoral reform or the precedence of the electoral reform to the government reform. This book is intended to shed some new light on the ongoing debate about the direction of China's political development.

You've seen the promises in the advertising: Microsoft's free Movie Maker 2 will make it simple to capture, edit and share your home movies. We agree, but how do you know where to start, or where you're going? The answer is Windows Movie Maker 2 Zero to Hero, which will take you from filming your movie (with useful tips to improve the quality) through editing and adding effects, to premiering your masterpiece to your friends and family. You'll learn how to produce professional looking films, with effects and transitions like those you see on TV, and how to show them off. Send them by e-mail, post them to web sites, copy them to a CD, or even make your own DVD! Zero to Hero is more than a catchy slogan and an opportunity for puns and graphical representations of tights, capes, and phone booths. It's a style of learning designed by friends of ED to reach beyond dry technical explanations and dusty old authors who don't know how it is for real users and wouldn't know good design if it slapped them round the face with a wet fish. With a Zero to Hero book you can choose how you learn. You can choose to learn everything you need to know about Windows Movie Maker 2 by working through the first section of the book from start to finish. Alternatively you can dive straight in to the inspirational 'Hero' chapters and refer back as and when you need. Then later, when you're a hero yourself, the book is easily used as a reference tool. When you're done you'll be ready to wear your underwear on the outside, metaphorically speaking of course. Table of Contents Chapter Zero - Introduction Chapter 1 - Shooting your footage Chapter 2 - Capturing video and importing files Chapter 3 - Collections andprojects Chapter 4 - Transitions Chapter 5 - Editing clips Chapter 6 - Video effects Chapter 7 &emdash; Audio editing Chapter 8 &emdash; Titles and credits Chapter 9 - Saving and sharing movies Hero 1 &emdash; E-mailing a video postcard Hero 2 - Editing a vacation movie Hero 3 - Videoing an event Hero 4 - Producing a short movie for the web