Event details
"The Political Beliefs of Chinese Officials"
SPEAKER: Gregory Distelhorst, University of Toronto
SPONSOR: Paul and Marcia Wythes Center on Contemporary China
Free and open to the public. Registration required.
Are the political opinions of Chinese officials organized into coherent systems of belief? What predicts their beliefs, and to what extent do they diverge from the beliefs of citizens? This study presents an original survey of over two thousand local government officials in China, examining their stated beliefs about the economy and the law. The median respondent expressed support for "law-abiding interventionism"—in which the government is deeply involved in markets and officials are constrained by laws. Disagreements between officials are organized into coherent, independently varying ideologies surrounding state intervention in the economy and the rule of law. Age is the strongest predictor of their political beliefs; younger officials favor markets and express stronger attachment to law. Compared to a survey of Chinese internet users, officials tend to favor state intervention in the economy with one noteworthy exception: their opposition to real estate price controls.
This event will be held online via Zoom webinar — register here
Gregory Distelhorst is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto, appointed at the Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources and the Rotman School of Management. He is also an investigator with The Governance Project at Stanford University's Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law.
Distelhorst's research focuses on global trade, worker rights, and the politics of contemporary China. It appears in peer-reviewed social science journals including the American Journal of Political Science, Management Science, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, The Journal of Politics, Perspectives on Politics, Comparative Political Studies, and the Quarterly Journal of Political Science.
Distelhorst previously lived in mainland China for five years, including fellowships through the U.S. Fulbright Program and the Yale-China Association. He received a BA in Cognitive Science from Yale University and a PhD in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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