One Country, Two Systems at a Crossroads: Hong Kong’s Opportunities and Challenges
In-Person Event
Ash Center Room 225, Suite 200 124 Mount Auburn Street
12:00 pm – 1:15 pm EST
Politics of Legitimacy: State-Society Relations in Post-Mao China
Join the Rajawali Foundation Institute for Asia for a discussion with Dingxin Zhao, Chinese sociologist and Max Palevsky Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Chicago.
In-Person Event
Ash Center Room 225, Suite 200 124 Mount Auburn Street
4:30 pm – 5:30 pm EST
Join the Rajawali Foundation Institute for Asia for a discussion with Dingxin Zhao, Chinese sociologist and Max Palevsky Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Chicago.
In this talk, Professor Zhao will argue that ideology, commonly accepted procedures for selecting top state leaders and performance in providing public goods are the three ideal-typical sources of state legitimacy. These sources generate distinct causal forces that shape citizens’ political psychology, including how they perceive political authority and evaluate the state, as well as the nature of state-society relations.
Zhao will examine how these sources of legitimacy interact with one another and how their relative importance may change over time. He will then discuss how this perspective can help us better understand the major patterns and transformations in Chinese politics over the past forty years, particularly changes in political authority, state-society relations and popular attitudes toward the state.
The conversation will be moderated by Rana Mitter, S.T. Lee Professor of U.S.-Asia Relations at Harvard Kennedy School.
Light refreshments will be provided. This event will be recorded.
About the speaker:
Dingxin Zhao is a Chinese sociologist and Max Palevsky Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Chicago. He specializes in political sociology, comparative historical sociology and social movements. His book, The Power of Tiananmen, is widely regarded as a definitive study of the 1989 Beijing student movement. A former mathematical ecologist with doctorates in entomology and sociology, he has also researched student nationalism, environmental movements and China’s historical development.
Event Details
This event is open to Harvard ID holders only and registration is required. The Ash Center encourages individuals with disabilities to participate in its events. To inquire about an accommodation, please contact our events team at info@ash.harvard.edu prior to the event.
Additional questions? Email the Ash Center events team at info@ash.harvard.edu.
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