When: September 24, 2011
From: 03:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Location: The Forum, Santa Fe University of Art and Design
1600 St. Michael’s Drive
Title: Booty Capitalism and Economic Development: The China Corruption Puzzle
Speaker: Dr. Xiaobo Lü
China is a country with many contradictions. It is now the world’s second largest economy yet its GDP per capita still ranks relatively low among all nations. It is ruled by a Communist Party, yet it has one of the most vibrant capitalist economies in the world. But most puzzling of all is the fact that China seems to have experienced widespread corruption while its economy has kept growing. In most cases, corruption would hurt the regime’s legitimacy and economic development. Why, then, is China an exception? Dr. Lü will discuss patterns of corruption in contemporary China and their consequences. He will introduce the audience to one of the most significant issues (“of life and death of the Party” as the Chinese Premier put it recently) in contemporary China and help unlock an interesting puzzle in public affairs.
Dr. Xiaobo Lü is Director of the Columbia Global Center in Beijing. He also is a member of the faculty at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute and at the Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Lu’s current research interests include Chinese politics and political economy, East Asian politics and economy, comparative political corruption and governance, political economy of regulation, and politics of development in East Asia. Previously, he was an assistant professor at Barnard College (1994–2001). Lu is the co-author of Taxation without Representation in Contemporary Rural China and Resistance and Democratization (Cambridge University Press) and the author of Cadres and Corruption: The Organizational Involution of the Chinese Communist Party (Stanford University Press).
Cost for the Lecture: CIR Members – $15 each,
Non-Members & Guests – $20 each
Full-time students (25 or under) with appropriate identification enrolled at area high schools and colleges are welcome to attend the International Lecture Series for free.
