His research analyzes the dynamics of local government responsiveness in China: how citizens frame their questions, proposals, and complaints to local authorities, and how state agents respond to their input. In his recent work he focuses on online input portals like the Mayor’s Mailbox system and the Message Board for Leaders, which have rapidly proliferated in the last two decades. He has published an article in Asian Survey and a chapter in the Routledge Handbook of Chinese Citizenship, drawing attention to the “constructive citizens” who use online complaint portals to pursue win-win solutions with local government. Outside of local politics, he has a secondary interest in how different institutions, political structures, and economic policies affect a country’s prospects for economic development, with a particular focus on the East Asian developmental states and their implications for other developing countries. At DKU he teaches courses on the political economy of development and the comparative study of political institutions. He earned his BA at Macalester, a small liberal arts college in Minnesota, where he was a double major in Political Science and Sociology. He completed his PhD in Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley in 2024. He also spent a semester at Leiden University College in The Hague, and two years in a Sociology PhD program at Cornell University. More details can be found on his personal website at www.juniusbrown.com
