Research

My research agenda explores themes related to state-society relations, state building, and local governance in the Chinese context specifically and in the setting of the global south more broadly.

Book Project

My book project, Deliberative Bureaucracy and the Making of China’s Markets, based on my dissertation, explores the origins of the widening prosperity gap between northern and southern China that opened up at the onset of the market reform in 1978.

Working Papers

Beyond Power and Ideology: Deliberative Bureaucracy and Market Formation in Socialist China, Under Review
ABSTRACT: Conventional theories assume that socialist central planning eliminates formal markets, rendering their revival contingent on national reforms. This article challenges that view by introducing a theory of market development driven by subnational deliberative bureaucracy under state socialism. It argues that even in highly centralized, anti-market regimes, local bureaucracies—through iterative, multi-level decision-making and broad societal input—could exploit policy ambiguities to formally embed market mechanisms within the command economy. Regions governed by such institutions were better positioned for market transition once national reforms began. The argument is grounded in a comparative historical analysis of two Chinese provinces during the socialist era (1956–1978), drawing on novel local archival sources. By uncovering the role of bureaucratic deliberation in sustaining markets under socialism, the study underscores the significance of endogenous institutional change, offering a new interpretation of China’s economic rise and fresh insights into state-led development in the Global South.

Beyond Power and Ideology: Deliberative Bureaucracy and Market Formation in Socialist China, Under Review

ABSTRACT: Conventional theories assume that socialist central planning eliminates formal markets, rendering their revival contingent on national reforms. This article challenges that view by introducing a theory of market development driven by subnational deliberative bureaucracy under state socialism. It argues that even in highly centralized, anti-market regimes, local bureaucracies—through iterative, multi-level decision-making and broad societal input—could exploit policy ambiguities to formally embed market mechanisms within the command economy. Regions governed by such institutions were better positioned for market transition once national reforms began. The argument is grounded in a comparative historical analysis of two Chinese provinces during the socialist era (1956–1978), drawing on novel local archival sources. By uncovering the role of bureaucratic deliberation in sustaining markets under socialism, the study underscores the significance of endogenous institutional change, offering a new interpretation of China’s economic rise and fresh insights into state-led development in the Global South.

Central Plans, Local Paths: Provincial Divergence in Economic Governance under High Socialism in China (1956–1978), Revise and Resubmit
ABSTRACT: This article challenges the prevailing view that China’s high socialism (1956–1978) succeeded in imposing uniform economic governance nationwide. Drawing on newly uncovered grassroots archives and over 60 open-ended interviews, it shows how ambiguous central mandates created space for subnational divergence. While Hebei rigidly enforced ideological orthodoxy, Zhejiang—now the heart of China’s entrepreneurial capitalism—developed a distinct deliberative governance model marked by intra-bureaucratic debate, grassroots feedback, and selective experimentation. This model preserved limited market practices within the formal planned economy. Crucially, these policies did not reflect liberal ideology, but pragmatic adaptations by Communist officials responding to local crises under political constraints. By comparing these divergent provincial trajectories, the article demonstrates how local bureaucracies shaped policy outcomes in uneven but consequential ways, even amid radical centralization. It contributes to scholarship on authoritarian governance by tracing the institutional roots of subnational variation under socialism and showing how these differences helped shape China’s uneven development.

Central Plans, Local Paths: Provincial Divergence in Economic Governance under High Socialism in China (1956–1978), Revise and Resubmit

ABSTRACT: This article challenges the prevailing view that China’s high socialism (1956–1978) succeeded in imposing uniform economic governance nationwide. Drawing on newly uncovered grassroots archives and over 60 open-ended interviews, it shows how ambiguous central mandates created space for subnational divergence. While Hebei rigidly enforced ideological orthodoxy, Zhejiang—now the heart of China’s entrepreneurial capitalism—developed a distinct deliberative governance model marked by intra-bureaucratic debate, grassroots feedback, and selective experimentation. This model preserved limited market practices within the formal planned economy. Crucially, these policies did not reflect liberal ideology, but pragmatic adaptations by Communist officials responding to local crises under political constraints. By comparing these divergent provincial trajectories, the article demonstrates how local bureaucracies shaped policy outcomes in uneven but consequential ways, even amid radical centralization. It contributes to scholarship on authoritarian governance by tracing the institutional roots of subnational variation under socialism and showing how these differences helped shape China’s uneven development.

Revolution in the Shadow of the State: Party Logic, State Power, and the Making of the Chinese Party-State, 1946–1949
ABSTRACT: This article reinterprets the Chinese Communist Revolution through the lens of state building, challenging views that depict it either as a bottom-up social movement or a top-down ideological project. Drawing on over 800 archival documents from the Yimeng base area in Shandong, I show how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) navigated—and was transformed by—the competing demands of revolutionary ideology and wartime governance. I develop a dynamic model of the party-state in which two logics—party and state—and two modes of rule—ideological mobilization and bureaucratic coordination—jointly shaped frontline policy. Rising peasant resistance and military pressures compelled the CCP to shift from class-based mobilization toward statistical governance, material incentives, and bureaucratic rationalization, even as party mechanisms remained vital for building infrastructural power and embedding the state in rural society. By tracing these interactions, the article reveals how revolutions are not only state-making moments but also processes transformed by the very imperatives of governance, offering a new framework for understanding revolutionary trajectories and authoritarian formation.

Revolution in the Shadow of the State: Party Logic, State Power, and the Making of the Chinese Party-State, 1946–1949

ABSTRACT: This article reinterprets the Chinese Communist Revolution through the lens of state building, challenging views that depict it either as a bottom-up social movement or a top-down ideological project. Drawing on over 800 archival documents from the Yimeng base area in Shandong, I show how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) navigated—and was transformed by—the competing demands of revolutionary ideology and wartime governance. I develop a dynamic model of the party-state in which two logics—party and state—and two modes of rule—ideological mobilization and bureaucratic coordination—jointly shaped frontline policy. Rising peasant resistance and military pressures compelled the CCP to shift from class-based mobilization toward statistical governance, material incentives, and bureaucratic rationalization, even as party mechanisms remained vital for building infrastructural power and embedding the state in rural society. By tracing these interactions, the article reveals how revolutions are not only state-making moments but also processes transformed by the very imperatives of governance, offering a new framework for understanding revolutionary trajectories and authoritarian formation.

Work in Progress

From Party Logic to State Logic: A Framework for Understanding Authoritarian Survival

One Country, Two Competing Ways of Service Delivery—A Comparative Study of Elder Care in Northern and Southern China

Deliberation in a Pandemic: Bureaucratic Feedback and the Politics of Public Health Governance