Full Description
Disruptions as Opportunities: Governing Chinese Society with Interactive Authoritarianism addresses the long-standing puzzle of why China outlived other one-party authoritarian regimes with particular attention to how the state manages an emerging civil society. Drawing upon over 1,200 survey responses conducted in 126 villages in the Sichuan province, as well as 70 interviews conducted with Civil Society Organization (CSO) leaders and government officials, participant observation, and online research, the book proposes a new theory of interactive authoritarianism to explain how an adaptive authoritarian state manages nascent civil society. Sun argues that when new phenomena and forces are introduced into Chinese society, the Chinese state adopts a three-stage interactive approach toward societal actors: toleration, differentiation, and legalization without institutionalization. Sun looks to three disruptions—earthquakes, internet censorship, and social-media-based guerrilla resistance to the ride-sharing industry—to test his theory about the three-stage interactive authoritarian approach and argues that the Chinese government evolves and consolidates its power in moments of crisis.
Contents
Acknowledgments
List of Figures
List of Tables
Introduction
Chapter 1: Governing the Nascent Civil Society in China: Background and Key players
Chapter 2: Stage I: Authoritarian Tolerance of Civil Society Activities
Chapter 3: Stage II: Differentiation - Outsourcing Responsibility for Governance
Chapter 4: Stage III: Legalization without Institutionalization
Chapter 5: Case I: The Sichuan Earthquakes and the Governance of the Rising CSOs
Chapter 6: Case II: The Dynamic, Decentralized, and Multi-Layered Internet Censorship
Chapter 7: Case III: Internet-facilitated Guerrilla Resistance of the Ride-Sharing Networks
Chapter 8: Conclusion: Governing as an Interactive Authoritarian State
Appendix: Eight Useful Tips of Conducting Fieldwork on China
Bibliography
