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Governing superstates: China and India

Hosted by the School of Public Policy

In-person and online public event (Sumeet Valrani Lecture Theatre, Centre Building)

Speakers

Mukulika Banerjee

Mukulika Banerjee

Kerry Brown

Kerry Brown

Vince Cable

Vince Cable

Chair

Luis Garicano

Luis Garicano

The problems of governing ‘superstates’ with populations of 1.4 billion people are of a different scale from others. 

A key question is how much decentralisation is possible and is happening. Too much and centrifugal forces can build up leading to secession and conflict; too little and the problems of over-centralisation - congested decision making; lack of innovation -  can become acute. How have China and India managed this balance and what is the trend? Both countries have recently moved in the direction of more authoritarian government under a dominant party and a ’strongman’ leader supposedly to make government more effective. Is that true? And at what cost? How far are they now stuck with what the Chinese call the ‘bad Emperor’ problem?

We shall discuss these issues with two leading figures in the scholarship of Indian and Chinese politics.

Meet our speakers and chair

Mukulika Banerjee was inaugural Director of the LSE South Asia Centre from 2015-2020 and is Associate Professor in Social Anthropology at the London School of Economics. She studied in Delhi and Oxford universities and taught at Oxford and UCL before joining LSE. Her books include Why India Votes? (2014), The Pathan Unarmed (2001) and The Sari (2003, with Daniel Miller) and edited Muslim Portraits (2007). Her latest monograph is Cultivating Democracy: Politics and Citizenship in Agrarian India (2021) published by OUP, New York.

Kerry Brown is Professor of Chinese Studies and Director of the Lau China Institute at King’s College, London. From 2012 to 2015 he was Professor of Chinese Politics and Director of the China Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, Australia. Prior to this he worked at Chatham House from 2006 to 2012, as Senior Fellow and then Head of the Asia Programme. From 1998 to 2005 he worked at the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, as First Secretary at the British Embassy in Beijing, and then as Head of the Indonesia, Philippine and East Timor Section.

Vince Cable is Visiting Professor in Practice at the School of Public Policy at LSE. He was UK Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills and President of the Board of Trade (2010-2015). He was Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2017-19. He served for 20 years as MP for Twickenham and retired in 2019.

Chair: Luis Garicano is Professor of Public Policy at the School of Public Policy. 

More about this event

The LSE School of Public Policy (@LSEPublicPolicy) equips you with the skills and ideas to transform people and societies. It is an international community where ideas and practice meet. Their approach creates professionals with the ability to analyse, understand and resolve the challenges of contemporary governance. 

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