Prof. Groth received his Ph.D. in Political Science from Stanford University. He has taught at major universities in the United States (Stanford University, University of California, and University of Hawaii), the Netherlands (Leiden University), and China (Peking University, Beijing Foreign Studies University, and China Foreign Affairs College). In addition to his academic experience, Prof. Groth has worked for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, the Nanjing Youth Olympic Games, and served as a senior advisor to Shenzhen government in Guangdong Province as the city prepared to host the 26th Summer Universiade [World University Games]. He has also worked for a think tank of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology and for Bain & Company, a major management consulting company. Prof. Groth has an American passport, but considers himself to be a citizen of the world. He has lived about half his life in the United States, and about half his life in other countries, mainly Japan, China, and the Netherlands, with frequent visits to Thailand and the Philippines. His interests are: The rise of China’s “middle class”, and its impact on China and the world.
Few countries have experienced such rapid and profound political, economic and social changes as China has during the past several generations and decades, and fascinating debates continue within the government and society about what type of country China should become and how the Chinese people should achieve their dreams.
This course examines interactions between the Chinese state [or government] and Chinese society. We will explore how the Chinese state and Chinese society converge and cooperate—and increasingly collide and conflict—in a number of realms. The course will focus on China since 1978, from the beginning of China’s “reform and opening up”.
We will use a multi-disciplinary approach and macro and micro perspectives to examine interrelated and over-lapping topics such as:
Throughout the course, we will explore the evolving dynamics of state-society relations in contemporary China. For example, we will discuss Andrew Mertha’s fascinating study about the politics of hydropower China, China’s Water Warriors: Citizen Action and Policy Change. Writing in 2008, Mertha argued that this case represents:
a sea change in the structure and process of politics in just the last decade or so. The contemporary politics of hydropower have provided an unprecedented degree of political pluralism to the Chinese policy process, in which government agencies in opposition to these hydropower projects seamlessly ally themselves with NGOs [non-governmental organizations] and, more important. . .with the public and the press.
We will also examine Joseph Fewsmith’s seminal study, The Logic and Limits of Political Reform in China. Fewsmith has argued:
There is no question that NGOs and other interests are crowding into the [political] space in a way that is unprecendented in post-1949 China, but the key question is whether these new societal interests can translate their energies into meaningful political reform.
Class sessions will include brief lectures, critical analysis and discussion. Discussions will focus on the assigned readings. We will also view and discuss several short videos. Readings include articles and books by political scientists, economists, sociologists, and anthropologists, as well as journalists, government officials, and business leaders. Students will read the work of both Chinese and non-Chinese authors.
