O'Brien, Kevin J. 1957-

PERSONAL:

Born 1957; children: Molly. Education: Grinnell College, B.A., 1979; Yale University, Ph.D., 1987.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Charles and Louise Travers Department of Political Science, University of California, 210 Barrows Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720. E-mail—kobrien@berkeley.edu.

CAREER:

Northeast Forestry Institute, Harbin, China, lecturer, 1983-84; Yale University, New Haven, CT, visiting lecturer, 1987; Ohio State University, Columbus, assistant professor and associate professor, 1987-2000; University of California—Berkeley, visiting associate professor, 1997-99, professor, 2000-05, Bedford Professor of political science and chair, Center for Chinese Studies, 2005—.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Recipient of grants from the Hong Kong Research Grants Council, the Asia Foundation, the Luce Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the Ford Foundation, Fulbright-Hays Fellowship, and the American Philosophical Society; Sage Award for best paper in comparative politics, American Political Science Association, 2004.

WRITINGS:

Reform without Liberalization: China's National People's Congress and the Politics of Institutional Change, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1990.

(Editor, with Neil J. Diamant and Stanley B. Lubman) Engaging the Law in China: State, Society, and Possibilities for Justice, Stanford University Press (Stanford, CA), 2005.

(With Lianjiang Li) Rightful Resistance in Rural China, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2006.

Author of articles for scholarly journals, including Comparative Politics and Mobilization. Member of editorial boards for World Politics, the China Journal, and other publications.

SIDELIGHTS:

Kevin J. O'Brien writes about economics and political change in contemporary China. In Rightful Resistance in Rural China, written with Lianjiang Li, O'Brien charts the progress among rural populations in advocating for political reforms and rights in a country that is still largely authoritarian. As a social movement these groups are making progress—or at least holding the state accountable for its actions—in changing the political landscape through their increasingly organized activities. O'Brien places these events in historical context, outlining similar approaches taken by other oppressed groups in the past.

In Reform without Liberalization: China's National People's Congress and the Politics of Institutional Change, O'Brien focuses more closely on the evolution of the official state government, the National People's Congress, comparing the process to those of other legislatures in history, including those of previous Chinese regimes. He offers three models of how government may choose to adapt to internal and external pressures, given the degree of liberalism they will accept. Liberalization, rationalization, and inclusion are the primary features of these models that will influence future policy, only if reforms continue and the Communist party gives up its stranglehold on political decision-making. Writing in the Journal of Politics, David Bachman stated that "O'Brien has written a fine work on a subject that is sure to receive much more attention in the future."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Journal of Asian Studies, August, 1991, Barrett L. McCormick, review of Reform without Liberalization: China's National People's Congress and the Politics of Institutional Change, pp. 669-671.

Journal of Politics, August, 1993, David Bachman, review of Reform without Liberalization, pp. 856-858.*