The Political Economy of China Graduate Discussion Group will inaugurate this year's discussion series with a presentation by Dr Wang Zhengxu (University of Nottingham). He will speak on "Elite Competition and Cooperation in China: Institutional Evolutions in Power Succession". The session will take place on Wednesday the 14th of October 2015 2pm-15:30pm in Room 138 at the Alison Richard Building, Sidgwick Site.
Abstract: Traditionally, communist and other non-democratic regimes often suffered
excessive elite competition, which led to assassinations, purges, and
coups. The inability for elites in these regimes to enter cooperative
arrangements is largely due to the indivisibility and
non-transferability of the top political power in the system. The
succession arrangements that have evolved in China since the early
1990s, however, seem to have greatly reduced the scope and intensity of
power struggle among elites. This presentation will identify the
institutional arrangements that have evolved to govern power transition
and power sharing among China’s political elite.
Dr. Zhengxu Wang researches national party and state institutions and
politics in China, especially the politics among top political elites,
citizen values and political behaviours in China and East Asia, and
institutional changes and political reforms in China’s, among other
topics.