Research Interests for Melanie Manion

Professor Manion studied philosophy and political economy at Peking University in the late 1970s, was trained in Far Eastern studies at McGill University and the University of London, and earned her doctorate in political science at the University of Michigan in 1989. Prior to her appointment at Duke University, she was Vilas-Jordan Distinguished Achievement Professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is the recipient of numerous research awards, including awards from the National Science Foundation and Fulbright Foundation, and the author of articles in American Political Science Review, Comparative Political Studies, Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, and China Quarterly. Other publications include Retirement of Revolutionaries in China (Princeton University Press, 1993), Corruption by Design (Harvard University Press, 2004), Chinese Politics: New Sources, Methods, and Field Strategies (edited with Allen Carlson, Mary Gallagher, and Kenneth Lieberthal, Cambridge University Press, 2010). Her new book, Information for Autocrats, on local congressional representation in China, is in production at Cambridge University Press. She is an award-winning teacher. Professor Manion’s research focuses on contemporary authoritarianism, with empirical work on bureaucracies, information, corruption, and representation in China. She is a pioneer in conducting survey research in China. Her forthcoming book on representation in Chinese local congresses analyzes data from a unique original survey of 5,130 local congressmen and women and their constituents. Current research investigates state management of social media in China, including netizen posts on the Chinese version of Twitter.

Recent Publications

1. Manion, M, The behavior of middlemen in the cadre retirement policy process, in Bureaucracy, Politics, and Decision Making in Post-Mao China (July, 2024), pp. 216-244
2. Li, Z; Manion, M, The Decline of Factions: The Impact of a Broad Purge on Political Decision Making in China, British Journal of Political Science, vol. 53 no. 3 (July, 2023), pp. 815-834 [doi] [abs]
3. Manion, M; Rothschild, V; Zhu, H, Dual Mandates in Chinese Congresses: Information and Cooptation, Issues and Studies, vol. 58 no. 1 (March, 2022) [doi] [abs]
4. Chang, C; Manion, M, Political Self-Censorship in Authoritarian States: The Spatial-Temporal Dimension of Trouble, Comparative Political Studies, vol. 54 no. 8 (July, 2021), pp. 1362-1392 [doi] [abs]
5. Fravel, MT; Manion, M; Wang, Y, A "China in the World" Paradigm for Scholarship., Studies in comparative international development, vol. 56 no. 1 (January, 2021), pp. 1-17 [doi] [abs]