TOPICS: RULE OF LAW IN RUSSIA/CHINA in Spring 2020 (PO5091C)

Dual enrolled with PO 4091 and Cross listed with LW This course will examine Russian and Chinese adaptive authoritarianism in the political, economic and judicial spheres, and compare governing strategies with the democratic standards set by their own national texts. Assigned readings and lectures will emphasize the judicial transformations necessary for Russia and China to achieve rule of law, a framework which the Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping governments claim to uphold. While neither country is predisposed to authoritarian government, elite desire for great power status through a coordinated presence in the international arena has led to reoccurring transformations that largely resemble the traditions they claim to transform. In both cases, the adaptive model of authoritarianism is surprisingly similar, despite historical dissimilarities and cultural distinctiveness.