This book provides a rare window into the micropolitics of contemporary authoritarian rule through a comparison of religious-state relations in Russia and China – two countries with long histories of religious repression, and even longer experiences with authoritarian politics. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in multiple sites in these countries, this book explores what religious and political authority want from one another, how they negotiate the terms of their relationship, and how cooperative or conflicting their interactions are. This comparison reveals that while tensions exist between the two sides, there is also ample room for mutually beneficial interaction. Religious communities and their authoritarian overseers are cooperating around the core issue of politics – namely, the struggle for money, power, and prestige – and becoming unexpected allies in the process.

Karrie J. Koesel is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Oregon, where she specializes in the study of contemporary Chinese and Russian politics, authoritarianism, and religion and politics. Her work has appeared in Perspectives on Politics, The China Quarterly and Post-Soviet Affairs. Koesel's research has been supported by grants from The John Templeton Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, the Fulbright program, the International Research and Exchanges Board, the Einaudi Center and East Asia Program at Cornell University, and the University of Oregon. In 2010 she was the recipient of the APSA Aaron Wildavsky Award for the best dissertation in religion and politics.