This course focuses on emerging issues in the field of Chinese politics, and (mostly) younger authors who have published books (and articles) since 2005. The early weeks emphasize the Chinese state and state-society relations at a high level of abstraction; later weeks turn toward state-society relations nearer the grassroots. Topics covered include: regime change, state capacity, bureaucratic politics, village elections, social capital, private entrepreneurs, banking, local cadres, adaptive governance, policy implementation, protest, rights consciousness, cross-national comparison and recent experimental research on authoritarian responsiveness. For political science graduate students preparing for the East Asian politics exam, this syllabi should be read in conjunction with the 2006 Political Science 244c syllabus available at my website.
Undergraduate students interested in enrolling in this course must email Instructor for approval.