Some social scientists spend their careers researching small-scale topics that may help push forward our understanding of bigger forces shaping our lives. Or not. Many academic papers are never cited.
That’s not an issue with Minxin Pei. He aims high and goes for the jugular, taking on one of the biggest topics imaginable in political science: Will China’s Communist Party stay in power in its present, authoritarian form? Mr. Pei, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College, argues that the odds are high that by 2030, China’s government will be quite different, pushed to change by the endemic corruption of the current party system. Corruption is the subject of his forthcoming book, “China’s Crony Capitalism: The Dynamics of Regime Decay.”[Source]