- James Monroe Professor of Politics and of East Asian Studies
Education
- BS, Cornell University, 1969
- MA, University of Chicago, 1972
- PhD, University of Chicago, 1978
Biography
Marc Blecher is professor of politics and East Asian studies.
His specialty is Chinese politics, and he has published several books and dozens of articles on local politics, popular participation, and political economy in China.
His current research on China focuses on two projects: workers’ politics and local governments’ role in economic development. He teaches about these subjects as well as Asian politics and political economy, Marxist theory, and comparative politics.
Notes
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Marc Blecher Publishes
February 25, 2016Professor of Politics and East Asian Studies Marc Blecher, along with co-author Hengxuan Wu ’17, published the article "Workers' Politics in China."
Blecher also published “Working Class Re-formation and De-Formation in the People’s Republic of China” in the Handbook on Class and Social Stratification in China, edited by Yingjie Guo. This article compares the development of the Chinese working class in the three decades of Maoist state socialism with that in under the structural reforms that began in 1978. It tries to solve two major puzzles: Why, despite its much improved material life in the Maoist era compared with the despotic conditions of earlier decades, did the working class turn profoundly radical? And why, when the structural reforms knocked the working class off its very privileged Maoist-era perch, has it responded in far less radical ways?
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Marc Blecher, Daniel Zipp Publish Article
February 12, 2015Marc Blecher, professor of politics and East Asian studies, and Daniel Zipp '13, published their article entitled “Migrants and Mobilization: Sectoral Patterns in China, 2010-2013" in the Global Labour Journal (January, 2015). The article analyzes the differences in social protest among migrant workers in China’s apparel, automobile, construction, and electronics industries.
The article is based on research originally done for Zipp's honors thesis, which the pair adapted for a paper they presented at an international conference sponsored by several German and Chinese universities in Nanchang, China, in March 2014.
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Marc Blecher Presents at Conference in China
April 30, 2014Professor of Politics and East Asian Studies Marc Blecher attended the Conference on Governance, Adaptability and System Stability under Contemporary One-Party Rule: Comparative Perspectives at Nanchang University, in Nanchang China from March 27 to 29. He presented a paper jointly written with Daniel Zipp ’13, titled “Migrants and Mobilization: Sectoral Patterns in China, 2010-2013.”
Blecher will present a new version of the this paper as the annual keynote lecture, entitled “Migrants and Mobilization: Labor Politics and Political Stability in China”, at the University of Glasgow Confucius Institute, Glasgow, Scotland, on May 12.