Corsi di Studio del Dipartimento di Culture, Politica e Società

The course, held by professor Zhang Jian - School of Government, Peking University, seeks to introduce students to the main issues in the study of Chinese politics, with a special focus on the policy making process and macro political trajectories in contemporary China.

Si avvisa che l'insegnamento avrà inizio lunedì 9 marzo, una volta terminato il periodo di isolamento precauzionale volontario del docente.

Please note that, due to the period of precautionary voluntary self-isolation, the lessons will start on Monday 9th March.

 

After taking the whole course, the students are expected to be familiar wih the political development of China from late Qing to late 1980’s and to be able to make their own informed and well-grounded arguments on the topics covered by the instructor:

- the institutional characteristics of the Chinese party-state

- the three major “contradictions” in Chinese politics, namely the relationship between the central and local party states, the State and the Society, and China and the outside world.

 

Lectures will be held in English. 

Each of the Lectures will be divided into two 90 minutes courses and one 90 minutes class discussion and Q&A session.

Besides finishing the required readings, the students are also expected to take active participation in the discussion.

 

There will be a close book final exam, which has both a key concept section and an essay question section.

The key concept question section will have 10 questions, and the students can pick any 5 out of the 10. Each of the key concept question should be answered in a succinct way with no more than 12 lines.

The essay question section will have 4 questions, and the students can pick any 2 out of the 4. Each of the essays should have at least 25 lines.

 

In the first three Lectures, the instructors will cover in a very brief manner the political development of China from late Qing to late 1980’s, trying to help the students understand the main themes of the Chinese politics and background of the current political problems.

In Lectures 4-7, we will analyze the institutional characteristics of the Chinese party-state, cover the main models to understand the Chinese policy making process, and we will use some examples to illustrate the power and shortcomings of the models.

Three major “contradictions” in Chinese politics, namely the relationship between the central and local party states, the State and the Society, and China and the outside world, will be covered in Lectures 8-10. These are the main frameworks with and within which Chinese politics unfolds and major academic debates evolve.

In the final two lectures, the current struggle and debate about the Chinese political future will be reviewed.

Reading list

Schell, Orville and John Delury. Wealth and Power: China’s Long March to the Twenty First Century, New York: Little, Brown, 2013 (Henceforth Schell and Delury)

Walder, Andrew. China under Mao: A Revolution Derailed, Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press, 2015 (Henceforth Walder)

Heilmann, Sebastian. China’s Political System. Lanham, MD.: Rowman & Littlefield. 2017 (Henceforth Heilmann)

Economy, Elizabeth. The Third Revolution: Xi Jinping and the New Chinese State. New York: Oxford University Press. 2016 (Henceforth Economy)

 

Introduction of the Course & Lecture 1

Themes of Chinese Politics and the Rise of CCP

Walder, Chap. 2

Lieberthal, Kenneth. Governing China: From Revolution through Reform, New York: W. Norton & Company, 2^nd edition, 2004, pp. 1-56.

 

Lecture 2

Maoist China: Foundation, Chaos and A Map for Future

Walder, Chaps. 3,7,10

Yang, Dali. Calamity and Reform in China, Chap. 2, Stanford University Press, 1998

 

Lecture 3

Deng Xiaoping’s Reform and Opening, or the Ultimate Dualism

Vogel, Ezra F. Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China, Chaps. 7,13, 22-23, Belknap, 2013

Richard Baum, Burying Mao: Chinese Politics in the Age of Deng Xiaoping, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996, pp. 3-23

Zhao, D. (1998). "Ecologies of Social Movements: Student Mobilization during the 1989 Prodemocracy Movement in Beijing." American Journal of Sociology 103(6): 1493-1529.

 

Lecture 4

Population Governance: Politics, Science, and Economics

Susan Greenhalgh and Edwin A. Winckler, Population, Policy, and Politics: From Leninist to Neoliberal Biopolitics, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2005, pp. 1-54, 205-244Davis, D. S. 2014. "Demographic Challenges for a Rising China." Daedalus, Vol. 143, No.2

Zhang, Hong. 2007 “From Resisting to ‘Embracing’ the One Child Rule”, The China Quarterly, No. 192

 

Lecture 5

Governing the “Un-Chinese” China: Ethnic Policy in Xinjiang

Fiskesjö, Magnus, 2006. “Rescuing the Empire: Chinese Nation-building in the Twentieth Century”, European Journal of East Asian Studies, Vol. 5, No.1

Sean R. Roberts, "A "Land of Borderlands": Implications of Xinjiang's Trans-border Interactions", in S. Frederick Starr ed. Xinjiang, China's Muslim Border Land. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2010, pp. 216-240

Cliff, Thomas, 2012.“The Partnership of Stability in Xinjiang: State–Society Interactions Following the July 2009 Unrest”, The China Journal, No. 68

 

Lecture 6

The Center-Local Relations: Pendulum of Centralization and Decentralization

Landry, Pierre. Decentralized Authoritarianism in China: The Communist Party's Control of Local Elites in the Post-Mao Era. New York: Cambridge University Press. 2008, Chaps. 1-3 (E-book available at PKU Library website)

Chen, D. ""Supervision by Public Opinion" Or by Government Officials? Media Criticism and Central-Local Government Relations in China." Modern China 43, no. 6 (2017): 620-645.

 

Lecture 7

State-Society Relations: toward New Totalitarianism?

Andrew J. Nathan, 2003. “Authoritarian Resilience” Journal of Democracy, Vol. 14

Sebastian, Chap. 5

Thornton, Patricia M., 2013. “The Advance of the Party: Transformation or Takeover of Urban Grassroots Society?”, The China Quarterly, No. 213.

Chen, Jie and Bruce Dickson, 2008. “Allies of the State: Democratic Support and Regime Support among China’s Private Entrepreneurs”, The China Quarterly.  No. 196.

 

Lecture 8

Contentious Politics: Resistance, Rebellion and Revolution

Lorentzen, Peter. "Designing Contentious Politics in Post-1989 China." Modern China 43, no. 5 (2017): 459-493

Lee, Ching Kwan. 2016. "Precarization or Empowerment? Reflections on Recent Labor Unrest in China", Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 75, No. 2

Fu, Diana. Mobilizing without the Masses: Control and Contention in China. New York: Cambridge University Press. 2017. Chap. 1

Cheng, Edmund W. "Street Politics in a Hybrid Regime: The Diffusion of Political Activism in Post-Colonial Hong Kong." China Quarterly 226, no. 226 (2016): 383-406.

 

Lecture 9

Xi-ism and the Future of Chinese Politics  

Nathan, Andrew. 2009. “Authoritarian Impermanence”, Journal of Democracy, Vol. 20

Economy, Chaps 2, 8,

Sebastian, Chap. 7

Li, Lianjiang. 2016. "Reassessing Trust in the Central Government: Evidence from Five National Surveys", in The China Quarterly, No. 225

A reading list including suggested readings is available in the teaching materials section.