Overview
Melanie Manion is Vor Broker Family Professor of Political Science at Duke University. She studied philosophy and political economy at Peking University in the late 1970s, was trained in Far Eastern studies at McGill University and the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, and earned her doctorate in political science at the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on contemporary authoritarianism, with empirical work on bureaucracy, corruption, information, and representation in China. She is the recipient of numerous research awards, including awards from the National Science Foundation, Fulbright Foundation, Social Science Research Council, and American Council of Learned Societies. Her newest research investigates the political selection of “winners” in China’s ongoing anticorruption campaign. Recent research, in collaboration with Charles Chang, analyzes social media self-censorship in China. Her most recent book, Information for Autocrats (Cambridge University Press, 2015), examines representation in Chinese local congresses. Previous publications include Retirement of Revolutionaries in China (Princeton University Press, 1993), Corruption by Design (Harvard University Press, 2004), and Contemporary Chinese Politics: New Sources, Methods, and Field Strategies (edited with Allen Carlson, Mary Gallagher, and Kenneth Lieberthal, Cambridge University Press, 2010). Her articles have appeared in journals including American Political Science Review, Comparative Political Studies, and China Quarterly. She is an award-winning teacher.
Office Hours
Office: 140 Science Drive, 201 Gross Hall, Box 90204, Durham, NC 27708
Campus box: 90204
Phone: 919.660.5951
Current Appointments & Affiliations
Recent Publications
The behavior of middlemen in the cadre retirement policy process
Chapter · July 26, 2024 Full text CiteThe Decline of Factions: The Impact of a Broad Purge on Political Decision Making in China
Journal Article British Journal of Political Science · July 22, 2023 We conceptualize broad purges, which extend far below top powerholders in authoritarian regimes and operate according to a logic fundamentally different from coup-proofing purges that target rivals to the supreme leader. Broad purges induce risk reduction ... Full text CiteDual Mandates in Chinese Congresses: Information and Cooptation
Journal Article Issues and Studies · March 1, 2022 Survey data suggest that a high proportion of Chinese congress delegates sit concurrently in two or more congresses. While dual mandates are not unusual in democracies, the literature has failed to notice their existence in China, let alone theorize or ana ... Full text CiteRecent Grants
Getting China Right Conference
ConferencePrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Henry Luce Foundation, Inc. · 2019 - 2025Institutionalized Rent Seeking: The Political-Business Revolving Door in Non-Democracies
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by American Political Science Association · 2020 - 2021View All Grants