Philippe C. Schmitter, professor emeritus, European University Institute:
Everyday Democracy provides new ways to understand the ongoing interaction between civil society organizations and both elected and appointed rulers. This alone makes it a groundbreaking contribution and not just for students of Chinese politics.

Richard Madsen, author of China and the American Dream: A Moral Inquiry:
Based on twenty years of grassroots fieldwork, this book vividly describes how egalitarian, democratic civic cultures develop within voluntary associations even though they are under the mantle of Chinese hegemonic authoritarianism. Spires then connects these observations to a deeper and hopeful understanding of the challenges facing a fragile democratic tradition in the modern world.

Diana Fu, author of Mobilizing Without the Masses: Control and Contention in China:
Through a close, longitudinal study of China’s youth-led civil society that runs counter to existing analyses, Spires demonstrates that democratic culture is emerging on authoritarian soil, in grassroots groups. This is an important contribution not only to China studies but also to the study of political culture.

Elisabeth Clemens, author of Civic Gifts: Voluntarism and the Making of the American Nation-State:
Drawing on decades of research on China’s voluntary associations, Everyday Democracy provides a rich and original analysis of how democratic practices and values develop within an authoritarian regime. By posing familiar questions about democracy in an unfamiliar setting, Anthony J. Spires enriches debates over the importance of civil society in an account that is not only accessible and engaging but also theoretically unsettling and profoundly revelatory.