On November 4, Professor Philippe Schmitter, a distinguished political scientist and Emeritus Professor of Stanford University, visiting research fellow at Center of Democracy, Development and Legal Administration and research fellow at Dept. of Politics and Social Sciences, European University Institute delivered a lecture of “Democratization and State Capacity” in School of Public Administration. Professor Yu Xunda, Deputy Director of Faculty of Social Sciences, ZJU was the commentator and Professor Yu Jianxin, Vice President of School of Public Administration chaired this lecture.

  Professor Philippe Schmitter first introduced the theories of democracy and social development by Max Weber and then came to the theme of the lecture: contemporary development of democratization. He said since 1974 when Portugal experienced democratization, over 100 countries in the world have undergone dramatic changes in their political systems. However, about 1/3 of the countries failed and there were obvious disparities of democratization between the developed and developing countries. The focus of his research is on the mutual influence between democratization and state capacity.

  Students and teachers present at the lecture aired their views and raised questions about Chinese democratization processes, designs of research methods and criteria of democracy in discussions. Professor Philippe Schmitter answered these questions and put forward many thought-provoking ideas, which were then commented on by Professor Yu Xunda. Professor Yu, thinking highly of the meticulous data and the exemplary research of Professor Philippe Schmitter, reviewed the research of Professor Philippe Schmitter in detail. Professor Yu also expressed his own understanding about the implications of state capacity.