Working Papers
Brown, Junius F. 2024. “When Responses Are Not Responsive: Explanatory Responsiveness as Performative Governance.”
Abstract:
Studies of constituency service responsiveness tend to focus on material results: the person soliciting help either gets what they want, or gets turned away. While acknowledging the importance of this substantive responsiveness, I draw attention to the phenomenon of explanatory responses: those in which the government provides a detailed reply explaining why a more complete solution was not possible. Far from merely saying no with many words, these replies represent a channel through which government agencies can assuage disgruntled citizens even when they are unable to solve their problems. By studying the rhetoric which agencies deploy in these replies, we obtain a window into the way a government seeks to legitimize itself under public pressure. Drawing on a sample of 2,003 letter reply pairs on the Message Board for Leaders, I identify three common tactics in China’s explanatory responses: arguing back, providing context, and using the law as a shield. These tactics suggest that institutions like the Message Board for Leaders not only collect information about public preferences and provide stable alternatives to protest. They also serve a pedagogical role, teaching the public what it means to be a good citizen.
Elevator pitch: The excuses which local governments make when unable to solve a problem tell us about the nature of state-society communication in China.
Status: Draft manuscript complete; preparing to submit for publication.
Brown, Junius F. 2024. “Law as a Shield: How Chinese Local Governments Use Legality to Deflect Public Pressure.”
Abstract:
In this paper, I introduce the concept of “law as a shield.” This refers to a way in which state agents invoke laws, rules, and regulations to justify their actions, or to justify their inaction when faced with a problem. I illustrate this concept using quantitative and qualitative data from an original sample of more than 2,000 letters and replies submitted to China’s Message Board for Leaders, an online citizen service portal. The frequency of law as a shield, appearing in one out of seven replies, lends credence to the idea that Chinese state and party agencies increasingly use rule by law, or legality, as a source of legitimacy. This is true even as rule of law, genuine constraints on the central leadership, continues to erode. Though my data come from China, I see law as a shield as a much broader phenomenon, and review other literature which finds similar practices in liberal democracies.
Elevator pitch: Elaborates on the concept of “Law as a Shield” from the “Explanatory Responsiveness” working paper, linking it to legality and rule-by-law.
Status: Draft manuscript complete; preparing to submit for publication.
Early Projects
Explanatory Responsiveness Survey Experiment
Description:
This project is a follow-up to the “Explanatory Responsiveness” working paper above. In it, I will conduct an online survey of Chinese netizens, presenting them with realistic scenarios of imperfect government responsiveness and asking them whether they consider these responses satisfactory. Respondents will be randomly assigned to slightly different government responses, allowing me to compare the satisfaction rates when local state agents justify their imperfect responsiveness in different ways. The survey will also include descriptive questions about citizens’ recent political participation and their familiarity with various official input channels.
Status: I have secured funding and a research assistant for this project, and I am currently drafting the survey questions. I will solicit feedback on the questions and survey design at APSA 2025 in Vancouver, so if you’re planning to attend, I’m happy to chat! Survey distribution is tentatively scheduled for October 2025.
