About

Melanie ManionI am the Vor Broker Family Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Duke University. I studied philosophy and political economy at Peking University in the late 1970s, was trained in Far Eastern studies at McGill University and the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, and earned my doctorate in political science at the University of Michigan.

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My research focuses on contemporary authoritarianism, with empirical work on bureaucracy, corruption, information, and representation in China. My most recent book, Information for Autocrats (Cambridge University Press, 2015), studies representation in Chinese local congresses, analyzing data from an original survey of some 5,000 local congressmen and women and their constituents. Previous publications include Retirement of Revolutionaries in China (Princeton University Press, 1993), Corruption by Design (Harvard University Press, 2004), and Contemporary Chinese Politics: New Sources, Methods, and Field Strategies (edited with Allen Carlson, Mary Gallagher, and Kenneth Lieberthal, Cambridge University Press, 2010). My articles have appeared in journals including American Political Science Review, Comparative Political Studies, and China Quarterly.

Vor Broker Family Distinguished Professor