Suchergebnisse

The Occupy movement in Hong Kong was sustained for about 80 days because of government tolerance, the presence of determined participants, and a weak leadership. The government tolerated the occupation because its initial use of force, in particular teargas, was counterproductive and provoked large-scale participation. Unlike other social movements, such as the 1989 Tiananmen movement, the Occupy movement reached its peak of participation at the very beginning, making it difficult to sustain the momentum. The presence of determined participants who chose to stay until the government responded was crucial to the sustaining of the movement. These self-selected participants were caught in a dilemma between fruitless occupation and reluctance to retreat without a success. The movement lasted also because the weak leadership was unable to force the government to concede or devise approaches for making a "graceful exit." Consequently, site clearance became the common choice of both the government and the protestors. This book develops a new framework to explain the sustaining of decentralized protest in the absence of strong movement organizations and leadership. Sustained protests are worth research because they not only reveal the broad social context in which the protests arise and persist but also point out the dynamics of the escalation or the decline of the protests. In addition, sustained protest may not only lead to more dramatic action, but they also result in the diffusion of protests or lead to significant policy changes

Government officials' malfeasance in China -- The politics of disciplining government officials -- Disciplining officials for duty-related malfeasance -- Punishing corrupt agents -- The politics of blame avoidance -- Reform-minded officials, state tolerance, and institutional change

Social conflicts and collective resistance in China -- Obstacles to successful resistance in China -- Issue linkage and effective resistance -- Social networks and effective resistance -- The power of disruptive collective action -- The limits of disruptive tactics : the use of violence -- Popular resistance and policy adjustment

In the 1990s, the Chinese government launched an unprecedented reform of state enterprises, putting tens of millions of people out of work. This empirically rich study calls on comprehensive surveys and interviews, combining quantitative data with qualitative in its examination of the variation in workers' collective action. Cai investigates the difference in interests of and options available to workers that reduce their solidarity, as well as the obstacles that prevent their coordination. In addition, and perhaps more importantly, this book explores the Chinese Government's policies and h.

Social movements occur not only because of political opportunities but also due to a perceived threat to citizens. Popular contention has remained an important mode of political participation in Hong Kong since 1997 when its sovereignty was handed over to China. Many influential collective actions in Hong Kong occurred when residents felt a threat had arisen from policies made by the city government or Beijing. By examining the Anti-Extradition-Bill movement in Hong Kong, this paper explores how threat triggers and sustains social movements. It finds that threat both facilitates the mobilization of social movements and sustains them. Threat strengthens solidarity among movement supporters because of their shared concerns and goals. It sustains a movement when government responses confirm participants' belief in the continual existence of the threat. The Anti-Extradition-Bill movement deepened the distrust between local residents and Beijing, resulting in the promulgation of the National Security Law by Beijing in May 2020.

Tens of millions of peasants died during the Great Famine in China from 1959 to 1961. Numerous Chinese peasants remained silent during the famine while others staged resistance. This article explores how peasant resistance was possible in a communist regime and how the government contained such resistance. It finds that resistance was considerably affected by the availability of protest leaders. Chinese peasants were organized into rural collectives controlled by the party-state through local cadres. Sympathetic rural cadres played crucial roles in facilitating peasant resistance. However, government control generally deprived rural communities of protest leaders. When collective resistance did occur, the government contained its influence through accommodation and repression. Effective control rendered the government insensitive to the famine suffered by the vast rural population of the country.

Authoritarian governments commonly control information flow to prevent the exposure of regime-damaging issues and to forestall collective actions against the regime. Authoritarian governments are claimed to enjoy advantages in information control when they possess resources and new technologies. However, these advantages do not necessarily alleviate the pressure information management faced by authoritarian governments. Using the case of China, this study shows that information management involves not only the central government but also local governments. Local authorities encounter challenges in information management because of the financial pressure of maintaining the information-collection. In addition, they also face difficulties and costs when they act upon the information they have collected.