Event

Xi Jinping has been centralizing policymaking and supervision of local cadres beginning in 2016. Using survey data of 1,500 cadres in 28 provinces, we analyze the impact of these institutional changes on local cadres and find the ways in which local officials are adapting strategically, namely with cycles of paralysis followed by strict policy implementation and formalism (following procedures but not actively trying to improve outcomes). These strategic responses have significant implications for the quality of policymaking and the sustainability of these institutional changes.

Jessica C. Teets is a Professor at Middlebury College, and Associate Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Chinese Political Science. Her research focuses on governance in authoritarian regimes, especially the role of civic participation. She is the author of Civil Society Under Authoritarianism: The China Model (Cambridge University Press, 2014) and editor (with William Hurst) of Local Governance Innovation in China: Experimentation, Diffusion, and Defiance (Routledge Contemporary China Series, 2014), in addition to articles published in The China Quarterly, World Politics, Governance, and the Journal of Contemporary China. Dr. Teets is currently working on a new book manuscript (with Dr. Xiang Gao) on changing governance under Xi Jinping, and a forthcoming edited volume (with University of Michigan Press) developing a theory of how to lobby dictators (with Dr. Max Grömping).

Open to all. This event is held onsite with a Zoom session. Please register in advance here:

https://upenn.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAqcOysrTsqHdHCtKDRrHqelaNdkBjtehxR#/registration