Fields of Interest
Biography
Susan Whiting (Ph.D., Michigan; B.A., Yale) is Professor of Political Science at the University of Washington in Seattle, where she also holds adjunct appointments in the Jackson School of International Studies and the School of Law. She specializes in Chinese and comparative politics, with an emphasis on the political economy of development. Her first book, Power and Wealth in Rural China: The Political Economy of Institutional Change, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2001. She has published articles and chapters on authoritarianism, “rule of law,” property rights, fiscal reform, and rural development in volumes and journals such as Comparative Political Studies and China Quarterly. She has contributed to studies of governance, fiscal reform, and non-governmental organizations under the auspices of the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and the Ford Foundation, respectively. Her current research interests include property rights in land, the role of law in authoritarian regimes, as well as the politics of fiscal reform. She teaches courses on comparative politics, Chinese politics, property rights, and authoritarian regimes.
Research
Selected Research
- Authoritarian Legality and State Capitalism in ChinaSusan H. WhitingAnnual Review of Law and Social Science 2023 19:1, 357-373
- Whiting, S.H. Land Rights, Industrialization, and Urbanization: China in Comparative Context. J OF CHIN POLIT SCI 27, 399–414 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11366-022-09786-3
- Whiting, Susan H., “Validating Vignette Designs with Real-World Data: A Study of Legal Mobilization in Response to Land Grievances in Rural China,” (with Xiao Ma), China Quarterly, Vol. 246 (June 2021).
- Susan H. Whiting, Stevan Harrell, Dan Abromson. "A Long View of Sustainable Development in the Chengdu Plain." Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 78, No. 2, 2019.
- Whiting, Susan H., “The Rural Economy,” (with Dan Wang), in Weiping Wu and Mark Frazier, eds., Sage Handbook on Contemporary China (Sage Publications, 2018).
- Susan H. Whiting, Xiao Ma, Tan Zhao, Tonglong Zhang. "Vote Buying as Rent-Seeking: Land Sales in China's Village Elections." Studies on Comparative International Development, 2017.
- Whiting, Susan. H., “Authoritarian ‘Rule of Law’ and Regime Legitimacy,” Comparative Political Studies, Vol. 50, No. 14 (December 2017).
- Whiting, Susan H. “Changing Property Rights Regimes: A Study of Rural Land Tenure in China,” (with Loren Brandt, Linxiu Zhang, and Tonglong Zhang), China Quarterly, Vol. 232 (December 2017)
- Whiting, Susan H. “Changing Property Rights Regimes: A Study of Rural Land Tenure in China,” (with Loren Brandt, Linxiu Zhang, and Tonglong Zhang), China Quarterly, Vol. 232 (December 2017)
- Susan Whiting. Review of "Cities and Stability: Urbanization, Redistribution, and Regime Survival in China", by Jeremy L. Wallace. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014, 252 pp.
- Shao Hua and Susan Whiting. "Comprehensive Mediation and the Function of Local Courts: An Investigation of Land Disputes in Two Hunan Counties.” 政法论丛 Journal of Political Science and Law, 2012.
- Susan Whiting. “Values in Land: Fiscal Pressures, Land Disputes, and Justice Claims in Rural and Peri-Urban China.” Urban Studies, February 2011.
- Susan H. Whiting. “Fiscal Reform and Land Public Finance: Zouping County in National Context.” China’s Local Public Finance in Transition, edited by Joyce Man, Yu-Hung Hong. Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, 2010.
- Susan H. Whiting, “Law and Its Substitutes: Contracting and Dispute Resolution among Chinese Firms." Dynamics of Local Governance in China during the Reform Era, edited by Tse-Kang Leng, Yun-han Chu. Lexington-Rowman & Littlefield, 2010.
- Susan Whiting. “Law and Its Substitutes: Contracting and Dispute Resolution among Chinese Firms,” In Dynamics of Local Governance in China during the Reform Era, edited by Tse-Kang Leng and Yun-han Chu, Lexington-Rowman & Littlefield, 2010.
- Susan Whiting. “Fiscal Reform and Land Public Finance: Zouping County in National Context,” In China’s Local Public Finance in Transition, edited by Joyce Man and Yu-Hung Hong. Cambridge: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, 2010.
- Susan Whiting. Review of Calvin Chen, "Some Assembly Required: Work, Community, and Politics in China’s Rural Enterprises". Harvard University Press, 2008. Pacific Affairs 82, no. 4 (2010).
- Susan H. Whiting, Donald Clarke, Peter Murrell. “The Role of Law in China’s Economic Development." China’s Great Economic Transformation, edited by Thomas Rawski, Loren Brandt. Cambridge University Press, 2008.
- Donald Clarke, Peter Murrell, and Susan Whiting. “The Role of Law in China’s Economic Development,” In China’s Great Economic Transformation, edited by Thomas Rawski and Loren Brandt, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
- Susan H. Whiting. “The Cadre Evaluation System at the Grassroots: The Paradox of Party Rule." Holding China Together, edited by Barry Naughton, Dali Yang, Cambridge University Press, 2004.
- Whiting, Susan H., Power and Wealth in Rural China: The Political Economy of Institutional Change (Cambridge University Press, 2001)
- Susan H. Whiting. “The Regional Evolution of Ownership Forms: Shareholding Cooperatives and Rural Industry in Shanghai and Wenzhou.” Property Rights and Economic Reform in China, edited by Andrew Walder and Jean Oi, Stanford University Press, 1999, pp. 171-200.
- Susan H. Whiting. “The Mobilization of Private Investment as a Problem of Trust in Local Governance Structures.” Trust and Governance, edited by Valerie Braithwaite, Margaret Levi. Russell Sage Books, 1998, pp. 167-193.
- Susan H. Whiting. “Market Discipline and Rural Enterprise in China.” Reforming Asian Socialism: The Growth of Market Institutions, edited by John McMillan and Barry Naughton. University of Michigan Press, 1996, pp. 63-110.
- Susan H. Whiting, Shao Hua. "Courts and Political Stability." Exploring the Limits of Law: Resolving Land Disputes in East Asia, edited by Hualing Fu, John Gillespie, Cambridge University Press, 2014.
- Whiting, Susan H., Illiberal Law and Development: Property Rights and Conflict over Land in China (Cambridge University Press, under contract)
Research Advised: Graduate Dissertations
- Tan Zhao. 2021. "Three Essays on Village Cadres in Contemporary China"
- Xiao Ma. 2017. "Guardians and Gridlocks: Bureaucracy, Bargaining, and Authoritarian Policymaking"
- Yuting Li. 2016. "Game of Housing: The Political Economy of Social Housing Provision in China, Evidence from Chongqing Shanghai." Diss., U of Washington.
- Bradley Jensen Murg. 2015. "Impetus or Impediment: Market Power, Foreign Direct Investment and Judicial Reform in Russia and Kazakhstan." Diss., U of Washington.
- Christopher Heurlin. 2011. "Responsive Authoritarianism: Protest and Policy Change in Rural and Urban China." Diss., U of Washington.
- Murg, Bradley Jensen. 2015. "Impetus or impediment: Market power, foreign direct investment and judicial reform in Russia and Kazakhstan"
Courses Taught
Spring 2024
Autumn 2022
Spring 2022
Spring 2020
Winter 2020
Autumn 2019
Summer 2019 B-term
Spring 2019
Autumn 2018
Summer 2018 B-term
News & Events
Related News
- Prof. Susan Whiting on the Wash. Post Monkey Cage Blog: China’s Evergrande is in trouble. But so is China’s top-down political economy - October 21, 2021
- New UW Political Economy Forum Podcast Episode - Is Cancel Culture Threatening Free Speech? - September 1, 2020
- Election 2020: A Turning Point? - August 27, 2020
- Prof. Susan Whiting, "Property Rights and Economic Development in China,” Penn Center for the Study of Contemporary China Podcast - March 19, 2019
- Trump, Trade, Tariffs panel discusses undesirable outcomes of trade wars - May 5, 2018
- Three Faculty Panels address the impact of the 2016 Presidential Election in the US and Around the World - June 29, 2017
- Prof. Susan Whiting on KING5 News regarding the economic and political impact of President Xi's visit - September 28, 2015
- Prof. Susan Whiting interviewed on Chinese cable network SinovisionNet - September 22, 2015
- Prof. Susan Whiting quoted in USA Today: China President Xi's U.S. tour: First Microsoft, then politics - September 22, 2015
- Prof. Whiting quoted in Seattle Times article, Seattle Stop May Be on Chinese President Xi’s Itinerary - September 4, 2015
- Prof. Susan Whiting and Xiao Ma on openDemocracy.net: "The Party Rules: What lies behind the Chinese Community Party elite's foregrounding of the 'rule of law'?" - November 2, 2014
Related Events
- Faculty Panel -- Election 2020: A Turning Point? Session 1: Climate Change & China Relations - October 1, 2020 - 6:00pm to 7:00pm
- Winter Political Science Faculty Panel, Feb. 6th: Corruption in Comparative Perspective - February 6, 2019 - 5:30pm to 7:00pm
- State Resurgence: End of Reform? - January 24, 2019 - 5:30pm to 7:30pm
- Spring Faculty Panel: Trump, Trade, Tariffs - May 3, 2018 - 4:30pm to 6:00pm
- SR-SCP: Separating Powers: Local Governance, Institutional Change, and Political Participation in Indonesia - May 19, 2017 - 12:00pm to 1:30pm
- Global Perspectives on Authoritarianism & Fascism - April 6, 2017 - 5:30pm
- Winter Faculty Panel: President Trump & Politics beyond the United States - March 1, 2017 - 4:30pm to 6:00pm