Collective Resistance in China

by Cai, Yongshun

• ISBN13: 9780804763394
• ISBN10: 0804763399
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-02-17
• Publisher: Stanford Univ Pr

Summary

Although academics have paid much attention to contentious politics in China and elsewhere, research on the outcomes of social protests, both direct and indirect, in non-democracies is still limited. In this new work, Yongshun Cai combines original fieldwork with secondary sources to examine how social protest has become a viable method of resistance in China and, more importantly, why some collective actions succeed while others fail. Cai looks at the collective resistance of a range of social groupspeasants to workers to homeownersand explores the outcomes of social protests in China by adopting an analytical framework that operationalizes the forcefulness of protestor action and the cost-benefit calculations of the government. He shows that a protesting group's ability to create and exploit the divide within the state, mobilize participants, or gain extra support directly affects the outcome of its collective action. Moreover, by exploring the government's response to social protests, the book addresses the resilience of the Chinese political system and its implications for social and political developments in China.

Author Biography

Yongshun Cai is Associate Professor of Political Science at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He is the author of State and Laid-Off Workers in Reform China: The Silence and Collective Action of the Retrenched (2006).

Table of Contents

Figures and Tables	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
Social Conflicts and Collective Resistance in China	p. 21
Obstacles to Successful Resistance in China	p. 43
Issue Linkage and Effective Resistance	p. 69
Social Networks and Effective Resistance	p. 87
The Power of Disruptive Collective Action	p. 110
The Limits of Disruptive Tactics: The Use of Violence	p. 135
Popular Resistance and Policy Adjustment	p. 155
Conclusion	p. 184
Appendixes
China General Social Survey 2005 (China GSS 2005)	p. 203
My Collection of 266 Cases	p. 205
Examples of Large-Scale Protests	p. 207
Data on Collective Petitions, 1995	p. 208
Data on Collective Petitions, 1998	p. 210
Data on Collective Petitions, 2002	p. 212
Notes	p. 215
Bibliography	p. 261
Index	p. 277
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