Author: Xi Chen | Journal of Democracy

Xi Chen is assistant professor of political science at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He has been a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University and is the author of Social Protest and Contentious Authoritarianism in China (2012).

January 2013, Volume 24, Issue 1

China at the Tipping Point? The Rising Cost of Stability

Xi Chen

Although the Chinese Communist Party has tried to institutionalize the political system in the reform era, such efforts have been hampered by the Maoist legacy. To cope with challenges from the society, the CCP mainly relies on a highly centralized and resource-intensive weiwen system, and shows little respect for institutional differentiation and formal procedures.

Will China Democratize?

Marc F. Plattner
Larry Diamond
Andrew J. Nathan

Although China has achieved extraordinary economic success without the CCP regime loosening its authoritarian grip, can the country continue its growth without political reform?