Fall 2008 CCS Noon Lecture Series - Mayling Birney

Professor Mayling Birney will speak on Chinese village election laws.

November 11, 2008
12:00PM - 01:00PM, Room 1636 School of Social Work Building, 1080 S. University

Using original multi-level survey data from China's two largest provinces, Dr. Birney will show that a key determinant of village election law implementation is the attitude that the higher level government holds towards village self-governance. In contrast, possible bottom-up drivers of election implementation, such as public political engagement, public self-interest in the elections, and social harmony, do not seem to be as significant factors. This finding suggests that when it comes to democracy-enhancing reforms, building the rule of law is best done through enlisting top-down support. The assumption that a self-interested, engaged public is able to effectively demand that political reforms be implemented, even when they have already been passed into laws, may be too optimistic in restrictive authoritarian contexts. Mayling Birney is a political scientist investigating how political institutions shape the nature of political relations, economic development, and human freedoms; and how they are in turn shaped by them. Her broad research interests include comparative democratization and authoritarian resilience; political economy; comparative local governance and politics; and democratic political theory. She is currently finishing a book on the political repercussions of local elections in China, which assesses the potential for local electoral reforms to contribute to democratic evolutions there and possibly elsewhere. Birney has also explored democratic politics in the U.S. from various angles and worked as a legislative aide in the U.S. Senate. In 2006-7, she was a research fellow at the Brookings Institution in D.C. Ph.D. Yale University.