The Chinese political economy is like no other system, now or in history.
Under the leadership of Xi Jinping, the system of government has been transformed into a new regime, radically harder than the legacy of Deng Xiaoping. Stein Ringen argues that China is less strong economically and more dictatorial politically than the world has wanted to believe. How does this system work exactly, and where is it heading? What is the balance of pragmatism and ideology among the leadership? and is there a ‘totalitarianism with Chinese characteristics’? Join us for a discussion with Stein Ringen of these questions from his latest book ‘The Perfect Dictatorship: China in the 21st Century’.
We invite Stein Ringen, Emeritus Professor at the University of Oxford to discuss.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ycw-brussels-stein-ringen-tickets-28848403351
Stein Ringen
Stein Ringen, a Norwegian political scientist, is emeritus professor at Green Templeton College, University of Oxford, where he from 1990 held the chair in sociology and social policy, and an affiliate of St Antony’s College, Oxford. He started his academic career as a junior fellow at the International Peace Research Institute in Oslo and was subsequently Professor of Welfare Studies at the University of Stockholm, senior research scientist at the Norwegian Central Bureau of Statistics, and adjunct Professor at Lillehammer University College. He has held visiting professorships and fellowships in Paris, Berlin, Prague, Brno, Barbados, Jerusalem, Sydney, Hong Kong, and at Harvard University. He has been Head of Research in the Norwegian Ministry of Public Administration, Assistant Director General in the Norwegian Ministry of Justice, a consultant to the United Nations, and a news and feature reporter with the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. He is a visiting professor at Richmond, the American International University in London.
His books include What Democracy Is For (Princeton University Press, 2007; Chinese version published by Xinhua in 2012), The Korean State and Social Policy (co-authored, Oxford University Press 2011), The Possibility of Politics (Oxford University Press, 1987 and Transaction, 2006), and Nation of Devils: Democracy and the Problem of Obedience (Yale University Press, 2013, the Chinese version of which, by CITIC Publishers, is currently ‘suspended’ by the censors).


