{"podcast":{"title":"The IR thinker","slug":"the-ir-thinker-6691770","podcast_index_feed_id":6691770,"rss_url":"https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/655776911a7d7e0012cbc914","website_url":"https://shows.acast.com/irthinker","image_url":"https://assets.pippa.io/shows/cover/1700230788592-f97a89c769205262be6d5629fc306022.jpeg","author":"Martin Zubko","episode_count":122,"summary":"The IR thinker features in-depth interviews with leading experts in international relations. The IR thinker is an independent, non-partisan and non-aligned platform. It hosts a wide range of perspectives on international relations but does not endorse any political party, government or ideological position. Since its first episode in 2023, The IR thinker has produced more than 100 episodes as a pro bono initiative established by Martin Zubko, an international relations scholar and lecturer. Available on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-ir-thinker-6691770"},"episode":{"title":"China's Institutional Genes - Chenggang Xu | 2025 Episode 26","slug":"china-s-institutional-genes-chenggang-xu-2025-episode-26","published_at":"2025-11-10T12:35:37+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-ir-thinker-6691770/china-s-institutional-genes-chenggang-xu-2025-episode-26","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-ir-thinker-6691770","url":"https://www.irthinker.com/china-institutional-genes-chenggang-xu","audio_url":"https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/655776911a7d7e0012cbc914/e/6911dc1ac1ed8717c591770e/media.mp3","summary":"This episode of  The IR thinker  features Professor Chenggang Xu on the conceptual and empirical foundations of his book  Institutional Genes: Origins of China’s Institutions and Totalitarianism . The conversation unpacks what he means by “institutions” and “institutional genes”, how this framework helps to open the black box of political change, and why certain systems prove remarkably resilient over time. We explore the notion of “stemness”, the contrasts between imperial China and European monarchies, and how specific “genes” in the Russian system shaped Bolshevism. Professor Xu then traces Mao’s fusion of Marxism with the legacy of Qin Shi Huang, the institutional differences between Soviet and Chinese communism, and whether contemporary China should be understood as totalitarian or authoritarian. The discussion closes by examining tyrannical incentive structures, the risks of Soviet-style stagnation, and how the institutional genes framework can be extended beyond domestic politics to foreign policy and other domains of global governance. Chenggang Xu Professor Chenggang Xu  is a Senior Research Scholar at the Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions (SCCEI) and a Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution. A leading scholar of institutional economics, political economy and the Chinese political–economic system, he is widely known for developing the concept of regionally decentralised authoritarianism and, more recently, for his work on institutional genes and the historical roots of Chinese totalitarianism. His research is extensively cited in both academic and policy circles, and he has been awarded the China Economics Prize and the Sun Yefang Economics Prize in recognition of his contribution to the study of institutions, developme…","meta_description":"This episode of The IR thinker features Professor Chenggang Xu on the conceptual and empirical foundations of his book Institutional Gen…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3881,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-ir-thinker-6691770/episodes/china-s-institutional-genes-chenggang-xu-2025-episode-26/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-ir-thinker-6691770/china-s-institutional-genes-chenggang-xu-2025-episode-26.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}