Understanding Institutional Changes In China: Lessons From TVE and Village Election

Speaker: CEAS CHINA BROWN BAG SERIES Xueguang Zhou, Professor of Sociology and Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University In this talk, Zhou will draw examples from previous studies of the township and village enterprises (TVEs) and village elections in the literature to discuss the limitations of the social science models in understanding institutional changes in China. On this basis, Zhou proposes an analytical model that centers on the multiple logics and their interplay in the processes of institutional change. The research issues, analytical concepts, and theoretical arguments associated with the proposed model are explicated and illustrated in a concrete setting--the evolution of village election in an agricultural town in northern China, from 2000 to 2008.