The document outlines the topics and required readings for a course on the institutional structure of the Chinese Communist Party-state. The course covers topics such as the role of the CCP in the political system and how it stabilizes authoritarian rule, the fragmented nature of the Chinese state and the benefits and challenges it poses, central-local relations and why local governments may disobey central commands, the functions of legal institutions and the prospects for rule of law in China, the relationship between the government and private sector capitalists, the emergence of civil society, and the possibility for social unrest and common protest tactics.