Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T12:07:44.887Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Zero-Sum Game? Repression and Protest in China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2017

Yao Li
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Most scholarship on contentious politics in authoritarian regimes focuses on severe repression and transgressive protest (e.g. revolt), suggesting a zero-sum game played by the state and challengers. However, a burgeoning literature suggests that less brutal forms of authoritarian states have emerged in recent decades and that protesters in these countries tend to limit their challenges, avoiding direct confrontation with the authorities. If so, can the notion of the zero-sum game truly capture the nuances and complexities of contentious politics in authoritarian regimes? Taking the case of China, this article offers a systematic analysis of the pattern of repression and protest in a strong authoritarian state. Drawing on an original data set of 1,418 protest events in China, this article shows that the Chinese state permits some (albeit limited) space for protest and that most protesters confine themselves to this space. These findings thus provide quantitative evidence that popular contention in China is featured by a non-zero-sum game. Overall, this study contributes to a more comprehensive and complex understanding of popular contention in authoritarian settings.

Keywords

repressioncontentious politicsprotest event analysisauthoritarian politicsChina
Type
Articles
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 54 , Issue 2 , April 2019 , pp. 309 - 335
Copyright
© The Author(s). Published by Government and Opposition Limited and Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

Yao Li is a China Public Policy Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. Contact email: yao_li@hks.harvard.edu.

References

REFERENCES

Abdullah, W.J. (2017), ‘Bringing Ideology In: Differing Oppositional Challenges to Hegemony in Singapore and Malaysia’, Government and Opposition: An International Journal of Comparative Politics, 52(3): 483–510.Google Scholar
Acemoglu, D. and Robinson, J.A. (2006), Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Almeida, P.D. (2003), ‘Opportunity Organizations and Threat-Induced Contention: Protest Waves in Authoritarian Settings’, American Journal of Sociology, 109(2): 345–400.Google Scholar
Beinin, J. and Vairel, F. (2011), ‘Introduction: The Middle East and North Africa Beyond Classical Social Movement Theory’, in J. Beinin and F. Vairel (eds), Social Movements, Mobilization, and Contestation in the Middle East and North Africa (Stanford: Stanford University Press): 1–26.Google Scholar
Beissinger, M.R. (2002), Nationalist Mobilization and the Collapse of the Soviet State (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Bellin, E. (2012), ‘Reconsidering the Robustness of Authoritarianism in the Middle East: Lessons from the Arab Spring’, Comparative Politics, 44(2): 127–149.Google Scholar
Bernstein, T.P. and Lü, X. (2000), ‘Taxation without Representation: Peasants, the Central and the Local States in Reform China’, China Quarterly, 163: 742.Google Scholar
Bovingdon, G. (2002), ‘The Not-So-Silent Majority Resistance: Uyghur Resistance to Han Rule in Xinjiang’, Modern China, 28(1): 39–78.Google Scholar
Bowman, S. and Willis, C. (2003), ‘We Media: How Audiences are Shaping the Future of News and Information’, report for the Media Center at the American Press Institute.Google Scholar
Brancati, D. (2014), ‘Democratic Authoritarianism: Origins and Effects’, Annual Review of Political Science, 17(1): 313–326.Google Scholar
Brumberg, D. (2002), ‘The Trap of Liberalized Autocracy’, Journal of Democracy, 13(4): 56–68.Google Scholar
Bulag, U.E. (2010), ‘Alter/Native Mongolian Identity: From Nationality to Ethnic Group’, in E.J. Perry and M. Selden (eds), Chinese Society: Change, Conflict and Resistance (Abingdon: Routledge): 223–246.Google Scholar
Cai, Y. (2010), Collective Resistance in China: Why Popular Protests Succeed or Fail (Stanford: Stanford University Press).Google Scholar
Chang, P. and Vitale, A. (2013), ‘Repressive Coverage in an Authoritarian Context: Threat, Weakness, and Legitimacy in South Korea’s Democracy Movement’, Mobilization: An International Quarterly, 18(1): 19–39.Google Scholar
Chang, P.Y. (2015), Protest Dialectics: State Repression and South Korea’s Democracy Movement, 1970–1979 (Stanford: Stanford University Press).Google Scholar
Chen, X. (2012), Social Protest and Contentious Authoritarianism in China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Davenport, C. (1995), ‘Multi-Dimensional Threat Perception and State Repression: An Inquiry into Why States Apply Negative Sanctions’, American Journal of Political Science, 39(3): 683–713.Google Scholar
Davenport, C., Soule, S.A. and Armstrong, D.A. (2011), ‘Protesting While Black?: The Differential Policing of American Activism, 1960 to 1990’, American Sociological Review, 76: 152–178.Google Scholar
Della Porta, D. and Reiter, H. (1998), ‘Introduction: The Policing of Protest in Western Democracies’, in D. Della Porta and H. Reiter (eds), Policing Protest: The Control of Mass Demonstrations in Western Democracies (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press): 1–32.Google Scholar
Dimitrov, M. (2008), ‘The Resilient Authoritarians’, Current History, 107(705): 24–29.Google Scholar
Earl, J. (2011), ‘Political Repression: Iron Fists, Velvet Gloves, and Diffuse Control’, Annual Review of Sociology, 37: 261–284.Google Scholar
Earl, J., Soule, S.A. and McCarthy, J.D. (2003), ‘Protests under Fire? Explaining the Policing of Protest’, American Sociological Review, 68(4): 581–606.Google Scholar
Francisco, R.A. (1995), ‘The Relationship between Coercion and Protest: An Empirical Evaluation in Three Coercive States’, Journal of Conflict Resolution, 39(2): 263–282.Google Scholar
Franklin, J. (2015), ‘Persistent Challengers: Repression, Concessions, Challenger Strength, and Commitment in Latin America’, Mobilization: An International Quarterly, 20(1): 61–80.Google Scholar
Gamson, W. (1990), The Strategy of Social Protest (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing).Google Scholar
Gladney, D.C. (2004), Dislocating China: Muslims, Minorities, and Other Subaltern Subjects (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).Google Scholar
Goldstein, R.J. (1978), Political Repression in Modern America from 1870 to the Present (Boston: G.K. Hall).Google Scholar
Goldstone, J.A. and Tilly, C. (2001), ‘Threat (and Opportunity): Popular Action and State Response in the Dynamics of Contentious Action’, in Silence and Voice in the Study of Contentious Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press): 179–194.Google Scholar
Grodsky, B. (2017), ‘Solidarity No More? Democratization and the Transformation of State–Social Movements Relations’, Government and Opposition: An International Journal of Comparative Politics, 52(1): 28–50.Google Scholar
Guo, X. (2012), China’s Security State: Philosophy, Evolution, and Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Gurr, T.R. (1986), ‘The Political Origins of State Violence and Terror: A Theoretical Analysis’, in M. Stohl and G. Lopez (eds), Government Violence and Repression: An Agenda for Research (New York: Greenwood Press): 45–71.Google Scholar
Hastings, J.V. (2005), ‘Perceiving a Single Chinese State: Escalation and Violence in Uighur Protests’, Problems of Post-Communism, 52(1): 28–38.Google Scholar
Hibbs, D.A. (1973), Mass Political Violence: A Cross-National Causal Analysis (New York: Wiley).Google Scholar
Hurst, W. (2008), ‘Mass Frames and Worker Protest’, in K. O’Brien (ed.), Popular Protest in China (Cambridge: Harvard University Press): 71–87.Google Scholar
Johnston, H. (2011), States and Social Movements (Cambridge: Polity).Google Scholar
Johnston, H. (2012), ‘State Violence and Oppositional Protest in High-capacity Authoritarian Regimes’, International Journal of Conflict and Violence, 6(1): 55–74.Google Scholar
King, G., Pan, J. and Roberts, M. (2013), ‘How Censorship in China Allows Government Criticism but Silences Collective Expression’, American Political Science Review, 107(917): 326–343.Google Scholar
Koopmans, R. (2004), ‘Protest in Time and Space: The Evolution of Waves of Contention’, in D.A. Snow, S.A. Soule and H. Kriesi (eds), The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing): 19–46.Google Scholar
Koopmans, R. and Rucht, D. (2002), ‘Protest Event Analysis’, in B. Klandermans and S. Staggenborg (eds), Methods in Social Movement Research (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press): 231–259.Google Scholar
Lee, C.K. and Zhang, Y. (2013), ‘The Power of Instability: Unraveling the Microfoundations of Bargained Authoritarianism in China’, American Journal of Sociology, 118(6): 1475–1508.Google Scholar
Levitsky, S. and Way, L.A. (2002), ‘The Rise of Competitive Authoritarianism’, Journal of Democracy, 13(2): 51–65.Google Scholar
Levitsky, S. and Way, L.A. (2010), Competitive Authoritarianism: Hybrid Regimes After the Cold War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Li, Y. (2013), ‘Fragmented Authoritarianism and Protest Channels: A Case Study of Resistance to Privatizing a Hospital’, Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, 42(2): 195–224.Google Scholar
Lipsky, M. (1970), Law and Order: Police Encounters (Chicago: Aldine).Google Scholar
Long, J.S. and Freese, J. (2006), Regression Models for Categorical Dependent Variables Using Stata (College Station, TX: StataCorp LP).Google Scholar
Lorentzen, P.L. (2013), ‘Regularizing Rioting: Permitting Public Protest in an Authoritarian Regime’, Quarterly Journal of Political Science, 8(2): 127–158.Google Scholar
Luehrmann, L.M. (2003), ‘Facing Citizen Complaints in China, 1951–1996’, Asian Survey, 43(5): 845–866.Google Scholar
Lust-Okar, E. (2005), Structuring Conflict in the Arab World: Incumbents, Opponents and Institutions (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Mackerras, C.P. (2004), ‘What is China? Who is Chinese? Han-minority Relations, Legitimacy, and the State’, in P.H. Gries and S. Rosen (eds), State and Society in 21st-Century China: Crisis, Contention, and Legitimation (Abingdon: RoutledgeCurzon): 216–234.Google Scholar
Magaloni, B. (2006), Voting for Autocracy: Hegemonic Party Survival and Its Demise in Mexico (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
McAdam, D. (1982), Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, 1930–1970 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).Google Scholar
McAdam, D., Tarrow, S. and Tilly, C. (2001), Dynamics of Contention (New York: Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Mertha, A.C. (2008), China’s Water Warriors: Citizen Action and Policy Change (Ithaca: Cornell University Press).Google Scholar
O’Brien, K. (2003), ‘Neither Transgressive Nor Contained: Boundary-Spanning Contention in China’, Mobilization: An International Quarterly, 8(1): 51–64.Google Scholar
O’Brien, K.J. and Li, L. (2006), Rightful Resistance in Rural China (New York: Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Olzak, S. (1992), The Dynamics of Ethnic Competition and Conflict (Stanford: Stanford University Press).Google Scholar
Olzak, S., Beasley, M. and Olivier, J. (2003), ‘The Impact of State Reforms on Protest Against Apartheid in South Africa’, Mobilization: An International Quarterly, 8(1): 27–50.Google Scholar
Perry, E.J. (2007), ‘Studying Chinese Politics: Farewell to Revolution?’, China Journal, 57: 1–23.Google Scholar
Perry, E.J. (2010), ‘Popular Protest: Playing by the Rules’, in J. Fewsmith (ed.), China Today, China Tomorrow: Domestic Politics, Economy, and Society (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield): 11–28.Google Scholar
Reny, M.E. and Hurst, W. (2013), ‘Social Unrest’, in C. Ogden (ed.), Handbook of China’s Governance and Domestic Politics (New York: Routledge): 210–220.Google Scholar
Saich, T. (2000), ‘Negotiating the State: The Development of Social Organizations in China’, China Quarterly, 161: 124–141.Google Scholar
Selden, M. and Perry, E. (2010), ‘Introduction: Reform and Resistance in Contemporary China’, in E. Perry and M. Selden (eds), Chinese Society: Change, Conflict and Resistance (Abingdon: Routledge): 1–30.Google Scholar
Skocpol, T. (1979), States and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia and China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Su, Y. and He, X. (2010), ‘Street as Courtroom: State Accommodation of Labor Protest in South China’, Law and Society Review, 44(1): 157–184.Google Scholar
Tanner, M.S. (2004), ‘China Rethinks Unrest’, Washington Quarterly, 27(3): 137–156.Google Scholar
Tilly, C. (1978), From Mobilization to Revolution (New York: McGraw-Hill).Google Scholar
Tilly, C. and Tarrow, S.G. (2007), Contentious Politics (Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers).Google Scholar
Tong, Y. and Lei, S. (2013), Social Protest in Contemporary China, 2003–2010: Transitional Pains and Regime Legitimacy (Abingdon: Routledge).Google Scholar
Vairel, F. (2011), ‘Protesting in Authoritarian Situations’, in J. Beinin and F. Vairel (eds), Social Movements, Mobilization, and Contestation in the Middle East and North Africa (Stanford: Stanford University Press): 27–42.Google Scholar
Wang, Y. and Carl, M. (2015), ‘The Rise of the Security State’, China Quarterly, 222: 339–359.Google Scholar
Yagci, A.H. (2017), ‘The Great Recession, Inequality and Occupy Protests around the World’, Government and Opposition: An International Journal of Comparative Politics, 52(4): 640–670.Google Scholar
Yu, J. (2008), ‘China’s Disturbances and Governance Crisis’, Teahouse for Sociologists, 1: 26–37. (In Chinese.)Google Scholar
Zhao, D. (2010), ‘Authoritarian Regime and Contentious Politics’, in K.T. Leicht and C.C. Jenkins (eds), Handbook of Politics: State and Society in Global Perspective (New York: Springer Science): 459–476.Google Scholar
Zweig, D. (2010), ‘Can New Political Institutions Manage Rural Conflict’, in E.J. Perry and M. Selden (eds), Chinese Society: Change, Conflict and Resistance (Abingdon: Routledge): 123–147.Google Scholar