Institutional reforms are critical strategies for political co-optation, enabling autocratic leaders to secure their dominance. While the co-optation of opposition elites has been extensively studied, its impact on broader society is less understood. Building on a unique national conjoint experiment in China to explore when citizens are more likely to resolve disputes with government agencies through administrative litigation, Dr Chao-yo Cheng (Birkbeck) will discuss his research which argues that legal mobilization, through which authoritarian regimes seek to channel popular grievances into controlled procedures such as courts, can also be considered as a form of co-optation.

Learn about the findings of the research in this talk with guest speaker, Chao-yo Cheng, Lecturer in Quantitative Political and Social Research at Birkbeck, University of London chaired by the Institute’s Charlotte Goodburn, Reader in Chinese Politics and Development, King’s.

Speaker

Dr Chao-yo Cheng is a Lecturer in Quantitative Political and Social Research. He is also the Director of Birkbeck's Postgraduate Social Research Programmes. His work applies various computational, quantitative and qualitative methods to address a wide range of topics in the political economy of development and institutions. Before coming to Birkbeck, Chao-yo held fellowship positions at Tsinghua University (Beijing) and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

Registration is required for all external attendees. Room details will be sent out via email nearer the time.