Andrew G. Walder
Andrew G. Walder is the Denise O'Leary and Kent Thiry Professor at Stanford University, where he is also a senior fellow in the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. Previously, he served as Chair of the Department of Sociology, Director of the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, and Head of the Division of International, Comparative and Area Studies in the School of Humanities and Sciences.
Walder has long specialized in the sources of conflict, stability, and change in communist regimes and their successor states. His publications on Mao-era China have ranged from the social and economic organization of that early period to the popular political mobilization of the late 1960s and the subsequent collapse and rebuilding of the Chinese party-state. His publications on post-Mao China have focused on the evolving pattern of stratification, social mobility, and inequality, with an emphasis on variation in the trajectories of post-state socialist systems. His current research is on the growth and evolution of China’s large modern corporations, both state and private, after the shift away from the Soviet-inspired command economy.
Walder joined the Stanford faculty in 1997. He received his Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Michigan in 1981 and taught at Columbia University before moving to Harvard in 1987. From 1995 to 1997, he headed the Division of Social Sciences at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
Walder has received fellowships and grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the National Academy of Sciences, the Henry Luce Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. His books and articles have won awards from the American Sociological Association, the Association for Asian Studies, and the Social Science History Association. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
His recent books include Fractured Rebellion: The Beijing Red Guard Movement (Harvard University Press, 2009); China Under Mao: A Revolution Derailed (Harvard University Press, 2015); Agents of Disorder: Inside China’s Cultural Revolution (Harvard University Press, 2019); and A Decade of Upheaval: The Cultural Revolution in Feng County (Princeton University Press, 2021) (with Dong Guoqiang); and Civil War in Guangxi: The Cultural Revolution on China’s Southern Periphery (Stanford University Press, 2023).
His recent articles include “After State Socialism: Political Origins of Transitional Recessions.” American Sociological Review 80, 2 (April 2015) (with Andrew Isaacson and Qinglian Lu); “The Dynamics of Collapse in an Authoritarian Regime: China in 1967.” American Journal of Sociology 122, 4 (January 2017) (with Qinglian Lu); “The Impact of Class Labels on Life Chances in China,” American Journal of Sociology 124, 4 (January 2019) (with Donald J. Treiman); and “Generating a Violent Insurgency: China’s Factional Warfare of 1967-1968.” American Journal of Sociology 126, 1 (July 2020) (with James Chu).
OTHER APPOINTMENTS/ORGANIZATIONS
- Director-Emeritus, Division of International, Comparative, and Area Studies, School of Humanities and Science
- Director-Emeritus, Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC)
- Senior Fellow at the Freeman and Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University
Latest Publications
Journal Articles & Book Chapters
Anatomy of a Regional Civil War: Guangxi, China, 1967-1968. Social Science History 46, 1 (Spring 2022), 35-63.
Andrew G. Walder and James Chu. “Generating a Violent Insurgency: China’s Factional Warfare of 1967-1968.” American Journal of Sociology 126, 1 (July 2020): 99-135.
Donald J. Treiman and Andrew G. Walder, “The Impact of Class Labels on Life Chances in China,” AmericanJournal of Sociology 124, 4 (January 2019): 1125-1163.
Dong Guoqiang and Andrew G. Walder, “Forces of Disorder: The Army in Xuzhou’s Factional Warfare,1967-1969.” Modern China 44, 2 (March 2018): 139-169.
"The Dynamics of Collapse in an Authoritarian Regime: China in 1967," American Journal of Sociology122, 4 (January 2017): 1144-1182.
Andrew G. Walder, “Rebellion of the Cadres: The 1967 Implosion of the Chinese Party-State.” The China Journal 75 (January 2016), 102-120.
Andrew G. Walder, "Bending the Arc of Chinese History: The Cultural Revolution's Paradoxcal Legacy." The China Quarterly227 (September 2016): 613-631.
"Bending the Arc of Chinese History: The Cultural Revolution's Paradoxical Legacy." The China Quarterly227 (September 2016), pp. 613-631.
Andrew G. Walder, Andrew Isaacson, and Qinglian Liu, "After State Socialism: The Political Origins of Transitional Recessions." American Sociological Review80:2 (April 2015), 444-468.
Andrew G. Walder, “China’s Evolving Oligarchy.” Pp. 322-327 in Social Stratification: Class, Race and Gender in Sociological Perspective, 4th ed., edited by David B. Grusky. Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 2014.
Andrew G. Walder, “Elite Opportunity in Transitions from State Socialism.” Pp. 1110-1115 in Social Stratification: Class, Race and Gender in Sociological Perspective, 4th ed., edited by David B. Grusky. Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 2014.
Dong Guoqiang and Andrew G. Walder, “Foreshocks: Local Origins of Nanjing’s Qingming Demonstrations of 1976.” China Quarterly 220 (December 2014), 1092-1110.
Andrew G. Walder and Xiaobin He, “Public Housing into Private Assets: Wealth Creation in Urban China.” Social Science Research 46 (July 2014), 85-99.
Andrew G. Walder, "Rebellion and Repression in China, 1966-1971." Social Science History 38, 4 (December 2014), 513-539.
Andrew G. Walder, Tianjue Luo, and Dan Wang, “Social Stratification in Transitional Economies: Property Rights and the Structure of Markets.” Theory and Society 42, 6 (November 2013), 561-588.
Dong Guoqiang and Andrew G. Walder, "From Truce to Dictatorship: Creating a Revolutionary Committee in Jiangsu," China Journal 68 (July 2012), 1-32.
Dong Guoqiang and Andrew G. Walder, “Nanjing’s ‘Second Cultural Revolution’ of 1974.” China Quarterly 212 (December 2012), 893-918.
Dong Guoqiang and Andrew G. Walder, "Factions in a Bureaucratic Setting: The Origins of Cultural Revolution Conflict in Nanjing." China Journal 65 (January 2011), 1-25.
Dong Guoqiang and Andrew G. Walder, "Local Politics in the Chinese Cultural Revolution: Nanjing Under Military Control." Journal of Asian Studies 70:2 (May 2011), 425-447.
Andrew G. Walder, “From Control to Ownership: China’s Managerial Revolution.” Management and Organization Review 7: 1 (March 2011), 19-38.
Andrew G. Walder, “Transitions from State Socialism: A Property Rights Perspective.” Pp. 503-535 in The Sociology of Economic Life, 3rd ed. edited by Mark Granovetter and Richard Swedberg. Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 2011.
Dong Guoqiang and Andrew G. Walder, "Nanjing's Failed 'January Revolution' of 1967: The Inner Politics of a Provincial Power Seizure." China Quarterly 203 (September 2010), 675-692.
Andrew G. Walder, “Political Sociology and Social Movements.” Annual Review of Sociology 34 (2009): 393-412.
Andrew G. Walder and Songhua Hu, “Revolution, Reform, and Status Inheritance: Urban China, 1949-1996.” American Journal of Sociology 114:5 (March 2009): 1395-1427.
Andrew G. Walder and Giang Hoang Nguyen, “Ownership, Organization, and Income Inequality: Market Transition in Rural Vietnam,” American Sociological Review 73:2 (April 2008), 251-269.
Andrew G. Walder, "Factional Conflict at Beijing University, 1966-1968." China Quarterly 188 (December 2006), 65-97.
Andrew G. Walder, “Ambiguity and Choice in Political Movements: The Origins of Beijing Red Guard Factionalism.” American Journal of Sociology 112: 3 (Nov. 2006): 710-750.
Andrew G. Walder and Litao Zhao, "Political Office and Household Wealth: Rural China in the Deng Era." China Quarterly 186 (June 2006), 357-376.
Andrew G. Walder, "Elite Opportunity in Transitional Economies," American Sociological Review 68:6 (December 2003), 899-916.
Andrew G. Walder, "Beijing Red Guard Factionalism: Social Interpretations Reconsidered." Journal of Asian Studies 61:2 (May 2002), 437-471.
Andrew G. Walder, "Markets and Income Inequality in Rural China: Political Advantage in an Expanding Economy." American Sociological Review 67:2 (April 2002), 231-253.
Andrew G. Walder and Yang Su, "The Cultural Revolution in the Countryside: Scope, Timing, and Human Impact." China Quarterly 173 (March 2003), 82-107.
Bobai Li and Andrew G. Walder, "Career Advancement as Party Patronage: Sponsored Mobility into the Chinese Administrative Elite," American Journal of Sociology 106:5 (March 2001), 1371-1408.
Andrew G. Walder, Bobai Li, and Donald J. Treiman, "Politics and Life Chances in a State Socialist Regime: Dual Career Paths into the Urban Chinese Elite, 1949-1996." American Sociological Review 65:2 (April 2000), 191-209.
Andrew G. Walder, "Career Mobility and the Communist Political Order," American Sociological Review 60:3 (June 1995), 309-328.
Andrew G. Walder, "Local Governments as Industrial Firms: An Organizational Analysis of China's Transitional Economy." American Journal of Sociology 101:2 (September 1995), 263-301.
Andrew G. Walder, "The Decline of Communist Power: A Theory of Institutional Change." Theory and Society 23 (April 1994), 297-323.
Andrew G. Walder, "Property Rights and Stratification in Socialist Redistributive Economies," American Sociological Review 57:4 (August 1992), 467-492.
Books
Dong Guoqiang and Andrew G. Walder, A Decade of Upheaval: The Cultural Revolution in Rural China. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2021.
Andrew G. Walder, Agents of Disorder: Inside China’s Cultural Revolution. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2019.
Andrew G. Walder, China Under Mao: A Revolution Derailed. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2015.
Fractured Rebellion: The Beijing Red Guard Movement. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2009.
Joseph W. Esherick, Paul G. Pickowicz, and Andrew G. Walder, eds., The Chinese Cultural Revolution as History. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006.
Jean C. Oi and Andrew G. Walder, eds. Property Rights and Economic Reform in China. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999.
Andrew G. Walder, ed. Zouping in Transition: The Process of Reform in Rural North China. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1998.
Andrew G. Walder, ed., China's Transitional Economy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Andrew G. Walder, ed., The Waning of the Communist State: Economic Origins of Political Decline in China and Hungary. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.
Andrew G. Walder, Communist Neo-Traditionalism: Work and Authority in Chinese Industry. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986.
