Why would government officials in authoritarian and transitional systems where formal
democratic and bureaucratic institutions of accountability are often weak ever provide more …

Examines the fundamental issue of how citizens get government officials to provide them
with the roads, schools, and other public services they need by studying communities in …

Do informal institutions, rules, and norms created and enforced by social groups promote
good local governance in environments of weak democratic or bureaucratic institutions …

In authoritarian regimes, seemingly liberal reforms are often poorly implemented in practice.
However, this study argues that even weak quasi-democratic institutions can offer resources …

In this article, I analyse civil society development in China using examples from Beijing to
demonstrate the causal role of local officials' ideas about these groups during the last 20 …

A prominent hypothesis to explain the durability of authoritarian regimes focuses on the
official adoption of law and legal institutions. The present study offers a novel empirical …

An increasing number of scholars have established that authoritarian regimes employ quasi-
democratic institutions as part of their efforts to retain power. However, we know little about …

Political decentralization is often argued to strengthen political accountability by bringing
government closer to the people. Social and civic institutions at the local level, such as …

A growing body of research suggests that authoritarian regimes are responsive to societal
actors, but our understanding of the sources of authoritarian responsiveness remains limited …

Why do nondemocratic regimes provide constituency service? This study develops theory
based on a national field audit of China's “Mayor's Mailbox,” an institution that allows citizens …