Allowing public participation in the political decision-making process is one of the most important indications of democracy. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, participatory budget reforms emerged in some local areas of China, introducing the public and other external forces into the budget decision-making process, which caused some Western scholars to wonder. Especially in the twenty-first century, political systems such as political consultation and mass autonomy have been continuously improved, the whole-process of people's democracy has been deeply promoted. This progress signifies new developments in China's democracy. Thus, the emergence of participatory budget has an objective background in this context.

In specific practice, how did China's participatory budget rise? What kind of force has propelled this process? Regarding the rise of participatory budget, while many Chinese and foreign scholars have struggled to provide a satisfactory explanation for this phenomenon by utilizing the dichotomous framework of the state and society, the book "The myth of local governance: state building and participatory budget reform" offers a fresh and insightful perspective. The book explores the dynamics of China's state building process and the changes in internal power relations, shedding light on the factors that have propelled the rise of participatory budgeting in the country.

First, this book sheds light on a series of fascinating topics and offerss a new perspective on China's political landscape. In the early years of the twenty-first century, China's participatory budget began to gain attention, and its appearance brought us many myths about local governance. First of all, this book addresses the question raised by Western scholars regarding why there are institutional arrangements similar to Western-style democracy in a non-Western-style democratic system. What is the difference between Chinese democracy and Western democracy? Then, while the concept of participatory budgeting emerged globally in the 1980s, why did China's implementation of participatory budgeting began in the early twenty-first century? Furthermore, the book acknowledges that not all regions in China have adopted participatory budget in their fiscal budget reforms and not all participatory budget has been extended. Hence, why have participatory budget appeared in some places and not in others? And why do participatory budget succeed in some places and not in others? The above phenomenon presented by participatory budget is worthy of study and is also what the public is eager to understand. This book provides us with a window that not only enables us to understand the origin of China's participatory budget but also helps us understand China's state building, state governance and democracy.

Second, the book constructs an effective political theoretical framework. To better answer the myths brought by participatory budget, the book outlines two major factors affecting the emergence of participatory budget in China. First, local governments have disposable financial resources and face pressure to allocate funds appropriately and supervision. Second, local governments are embedded in the network of participatory governance ideas, and both are indispensable. In practice, the introduction of external forces to intervene in financial budget management has alleviated local pressure of funds allocation. In addition to considering local motivations and practices, the author places participatory budget within a broader context, arguing that it cannot be fully understood without considering the process of state building in China since the 1980s. Consequently, the emergence of participatory budget also reflects China's centralization and rationalization process from the side, showing the interaction between local governance and the state building process.

Finally, this book adopts a rigorous research methodology. While the analysis takes a macro perspective, the book also delves into the grassroots level in the choice of research subjects, comprising of Chinese towns, districts, and streets as the units of analysis. In the specific discussion, this book adopts qualitative research methods, and selects two groups of cases for comparative study, mainly involving seven local grassroots units under Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Guangxi, Sichuan, Bei**g and Shanghai, also intervening in some scattered cases in other places. On the basis of collecting a large amount of data through face-to-face interviews, field visits and literature review, this book uses a large scope to make a comparative analysis of two groups. To organize and comprehend the data, the author uses triangle verification to ensure the reliability of data collection and case analysis.   The author of the book employs two strategies: seeking common ground and seeking differences. These strategies help to control the interference factors, realizing the mutual verification of data cases, and then effectively testing the inference of this book on the origin of participatory budget and its two key influencing factors.

While this book only studies the local participatory budget that emerged in China in the early twenty-first century, answering the problems of local governance practice at that time, it does not discuss other subsequent governance practices. However, it is important to note that participatory budget is just one option among various approaches to local governance in China. After 2012, China's political consultative democracy and the whole process of people's democracy increased. With the deepening of all-round people’s democracy, local governance practices and even the building of the state have taken on new and more forms, which need to be understood with new logic.

The book "The myth of local governance: state building and participatory budget reform" interprets the participatory budget in China during the early twenty-first century, answers our myths about local governance in China, helps us understand the unique aspects of China's state governance and state building, and provides us a better understanding of China's political system and democratic process, thus truly realizing "seeing the whole world from a grain of sand".