The Authoritarian Commons: Neighborhood Democratization in Urban China
A guest lecture by Professor Shitong Qiao of Duke University.
Co-sponsored by the Departments of History and Political Science of Concordia University, as well as the Chaire du recherche du Canada en droit des bien transystemique et communaut茅s durables in the Faculty of Law (91社区)
Abstract
Based on six-year fieldwork across China including over 200 in-depth interviews, this book provides an ethnographic account of how hundreds of millions of Chinese homeowners practice democracy in and beyond their condominium complexes. Using interviews, survey data, and a comprehensive examination of laws, policies, and judicial decisions, this book also examines how the party-state in China responds to the risks and benefits brought by neighborhood democratization. Moreover, this book provides a framework to analyze different approaches to the authoritarian dilemma facing neighborhood democratization, which may increase the regime鈥檚 legitimacy and expose it to the challenge of independent organizations at the same time. Lastly, this book identifies conditions under which neighborhood democratization can succeed.
Shitong Qiao
Shitong Qiao is Professor of Law and Ken Young-Gak Yun and Jinah Park Yun Research Scholar at Duke University. He also taught property and comparative law at the University of Hong Kong and New York University and was Law and Public Affairs fellow at Princeton University. He received his law degrees from Wuhan (LLB), Peking (MPhil) and Yale (LLM and JSD). Professor Qiao employs mixed methods to explore the relationship between political power, law, and private ordering.
