Orion Lewis

My research and teaching interests focus on the role of oppositional tactical choice and political communication strategies in mobilizing societal actors against authoritarian regimes. I am interested in three broad questions: first, how do domestic and international actors affect authoritarian stability? Secondly, in what ways do the communication strategies of domestic challengers influence authoritarian institutional change? Thirdly, what are the political and economic levers that states use to influence change in domestic political environments? Empirically, I have explored these issues from a global perspective as well as in the geographic focus of China and East Asia. My work on China—focused on explaining gradual information liberalization in a formally controlled system—has also been a catalyst for examining the role of political communication in authoritarian institutional change.