Fewsmith Cited on Evolution of Elite Chinese Politics
Joseph Fewsmith, Professor of International Relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, was cited in an article published by The Diplomat on Chinese politics and the forces that drive it.
The article, titled “The End of Senior Politics in China,” explores the evolution of Chinese politics from the 1980s to today and how many have considered institutionalization as the key to the country’s political stability. However, Fewsmith argues in his book Rethinking Chinese Politics that, as in all Leninist systems, political power is difficult to pass on from one leader to the next and so Chinese politics at the top are not institutionalized, as often claimed. As stated in the article, “what China scholars defined as political institutions in China are nothing more than norms.”
The full article can be read on The Diplomat‘s website.
Joseph Fewsmith is a Professor of International Relations at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University He is the author or editor of eight books, including, most recently, Rethinking Chinese Politics (June 2021). He is an associate of the John King Fairbank Center for East Asian Studies at Harvard University and the Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future at Boston University. Read more about Professor Fewsmith on his faculty profile.