This Ph.D. dissertation consists of three independent essays on elite and popular politics and culture. Chapter 1 is a study of the career mobility of high-level political elites in post-reform China. The essay develops an account that views mobility not from the perspective of the individual, but from the perspective of the organization trying to fill positions. Our study shows that during the reform era elites whose transfers are embedded in vacancy chains are more successful than those whose transfers occur in isolation. These findings are the result of a strategy of organizational sponsorship pursued by the Communist Party of China that results from efforts to integrate the increasingly decentralized Chinese state. Chapter 2 is an essay that focuses on the ideological dimension of the Chinese reform. We found that during the course of China's economic reform, the Party’s official state rhetoric progressed path-dependently at a highly consistent pace. Without being absorbed internally, external political shocks could quickly die out in the system. New elements were likely to survive only in existing stable contexts. The results suggest that in cultural production, adaptation in stable configurations is the key step in long-term cumulative change. Chapter 3 is a study of how books in 6 major languages of the world perceive other nations and identities when their host nations are in war and trade with other nations. We show that international perceptions change significantly during war time. And the patterns are consistent in American English, British English, and French.