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Event Details
October 8, 2010
-

UC Berkeley
2223 Fulton Street
6th floor

Berkeley, CA 94720
United States

Public Talk - Berkeley, CA

Congresses with Constituents, Constituents without Congresses in China

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Colloquium: Center for Chinese Studies | October 8 | 4-6 p.m. |  IEAS conference room

Location: 2223 Fulton Street, 6th floor, Berkeley, CA 94720

Speaker: Melanie Manion, Political Science and Public Affairs, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Panelist/Discussant: Kevin O'Brien, Political Science, UC Berkeley

Sponsor: Chinese Studies, Center for (CCS)

For decades, congresses of elected representatives in China have been dismissed as rubber stamp legislatures, but local congresses have become real political players in recent years. Their new assertiveness presents a puzzle as it was set in motion by rules designed and promoted by authoritarian rulers in Beijing. Do rules that empower elected representatives strengthen authoritarianism? If so, how? Manion draws on qualitative interview evidence and original survey data to answer this question, illuminating core features of Chinese “authoritarian resilience.”