Sabrina Lei is currently a Visiting Scholar with the Department of Poltiical Science from School of Public Affairs, Xiamen University, China. Sabrina's research theme focus is “Diplomatic Positioning of the States: A Comparison between China and Canada”, and she is currently working on the book “Consensus and Control: Analysis of Human Political Life”.
Sabrina's lecture, "Consensus and Control: the Individual's Institutional Perception and its Formation", conceptually distinguishes two kinds of the individual’s institutional perception: sense of consensus and sense of control (and the corresponding sense of being controlled). This perception is the real feeling of the individual toward the institution, but as an implicit political mood, people may not willing to express it clearly. However, the convergence of individual institutional perception directly constitutes the public judgment on the legitimacy of power, and sets the path dependence of institutional change. For example, the lasting suppressed sense of being controlled of the public will trigger revolution at a certain time point, but their yearning for the sense of control determines that authoritarian state could replace the regime while difficult to update it. As for the sense of consensus, it not only constitutes an incentive for institutional reform and optimization, but also serves as a public opinion basis for long-term political stability.
The lecture will focus on the following topics:
Firstly, it will define the connotation of sense of consensus and sense of control (sense of being controlled);
Secondly, it will clarify the practical significance and academic value of sense of consensus and sense of control (sense of being controlled);
Thirdly, it will put forward the research hypothesis of the formation of sense of consensus and sense of control (sense of being controlled).
Note: This research is supported by Annual Projects of National Social Science Foundation of China （NSSFC）in 2019 : <Research on the Construction and Operation of Institutional System from the Perspective of Knowledge Growth>, Project Approval Number: 19BZZ044.