"This book argues that any institution that can efficiently solve the problems of collective action and accountability is able to uphold quality governance in local communities, regardless of their nature and origins. The respective performance of different types of institutions, however, is contingent upon the characteristics of the social environment in which they are embedded. Such social environment characteristics are, in turn, closely shaped by the structural features of the local communities. This book further argues that, among a variety of factors that might have contributed to the structural transformation of rural communities, the most salient is a major phenomenon witnessed in many developing countries: rural-urban migration. More specifically, in local communities with distinct levels of outward migration, community members' contextualized choices between indigenous relation-based and imposed rule-based institutions for local governance issues are likely to unfold in different ways. This generates distinct dynamics of institutional change in these communities with varying communal structures. This is the first book that uses a coherent framework to simultaneously examine various aspects of rural China's governance (including public goods provision, conflict resolution, disaster and crisis relief, and raising modest credit and small loans) and covers both formal and informal institutions"--