2007

Lei Guang

  • Associate Professor
  • San Diego State University
Picture of Lei Guang

Project

Justice at the Margin: Aggrieved Citizens, Nervous Officials, and the Making of Petitions as a Political Institution in China

Program

ACLS Fellowship Program

Department

Political Science

Abstract

This study explores the politics of petitioning in China, focusing on the interaction of citizen petitioners, petition-handling bureaucrats, and the local state establishment in the petition process. Through archival work and field interviews, it aims to uncover the causes and consequences of citizens petitions, and to understand the moral-political universe of aggrieved individuals or groups and petition-handling officials in their respective quest for justice and political stability and legitimacy in China today.