State Power, Citizen-State Interactions, and Responsiveness in China and India
Saturday, September 5, 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm
2026 APSA Annual Meeting & Exhibition — Boston, MA | Register here
In-person | Full Paper Panel
Participants:
- (Chair) Ellen M. Lust, Cornell Univesity and University of Gothenburg
- (Discussant) Ellen M. Lust, Cornell Univesity and University of Gothenburg
Session Description:
This panel brings together scholars of China and India, two largest developing countries, to examine how the state, bureaucracy, nonstate actors, and citizens interact with each other in urban settings during crises. Using LLMs, Ong and Jia examine how the Chinese state augments its power and conduct repression through complicit nonstate actors in the implementation of the Zero-Covid policy. Gaikwad and Thomas how prior citizen-state engagement shapes political responsiveness in India during the Covid-19 pandemic. Nambiar examines how disasters can sustainably enhance state capacity in India by creating networks that increase citizen-state interactions, facilitate information flows, and improving citizens’ ability to demand public goods and services. Rains examines the dynamics of claim-making strategies in Indian slums is being shaped by residents’ prior experience with the state. State responses to earlier organizing episodes lead residents to update their beliefs the feasibility of the strategies, and the risks and returns of different tactics. Together these papers inform and contributes to the literature on urban politics, state power, citizen-state interactions, and state responsiveness during crises.
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