Fairbank Center

The Selectoral Connection in Chinese Local Congresses
Melanie Manion, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Professor Manion draws crucially on qualitative interview evidence and data from an original probability sample survey of 4,240 congressional delegates to investigate the new inclusiveness of candidate selection in Chinese local congresses. Communist party-led election committees wield effective veto power in selecting candidates from nominees. Yet, with newly mandated, contested elections and secret ballots, voters are veto players too: with small but real possibilities of “failed elections” and election of write-in candidates, election committees are bound to act strategically by taking voter preferences into account. Professor Manion tests this qualitative conclusion through analysis of differences between voter nominees and organizational (i.e., party) nominees. She finds that voter nomination offers ordinary Chinese a channel for electoral voice, however muffled and distorted by party-led election committees. She also finds this electoral voice has consequences for delivery of local public goods. In sum, there is a “selectoral connection” in Chinese local congresses. Even in this single-party, authoritarian polity that has not appreciably democratized its electoral institutions at the highest levels and only somewhat liberalized them at lower levels, the new institutions matter. Specifically, in the context of contested elections and secret ballots, the new inclusiveness of candidate selection matters.

Melanie Manion is professor of political science and public affairs at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She studied philosophy and political economy at Peking University, was trained in Far Eastern studies at McGill University and the University of London, and earned her PhD in political science at the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on Chinese politics. Professor Manion is the recipient of numerous research awards, most recently from the National Science Foundation and Fulbright Foundation. Her publications include Retirement of Revolutionaries in China (1993), Corruption by Design (2004), Chinese Politics: New Sources, Methods, and Field Strategies (2010), and articles in the American Political Science Review, Comparative Political Studies, and China Quarterly.

Location: Knafel Building, Bowie-Vernon Room (K262), 1737 Cambridge Street, Harvard University