Abstract: In recent years economists have shown great interest in studying China’s governance. Despite differences, their studies share a common imagination about the Chinese state, named “political market” in this paper. In this imagination, three dimensions of Chinese state have been paid special attention to, that is, marketability, multiagencyorientation, and politicalness. Zhou LiAn’s theory of administrative subcontract has made important contribution to all these three areas, and ends up greatly advancing the research on China’s governance from an economic perspective. The political market imagination, however, tends to overemphasize the marketability of the state at the expense of slighting its politicalness. Just in the same vein of bias, Zhou’s article is in a weak position to specify the property and function of the state’s power, and to define the concepts related. Despite this, the political market imagination and Zhou’s theory have still provided the scholars, including those outside economics, with a proactive, integrative, and analytical framework based on which they can build their theorization on China’s governance.

Key words: China’s governance, political market , administrative subcontract