Suchergebnisse

It is often assumed that privatization leads to profit, and that well-delineated property rights and a strong private sector will help boost an economy. This book investigates the property rights in Chinese enterprises in the reform era, finding that distinction between the public and the private are blurred, that national reform policies are implemented unevenly across the country, and that enterprises owned by local governments, in Shanghai, for example, are actually extremely profitable

China has witnessed numerous incidents of social protests over the past three decades. Protests create uncertainty for authoritarian governments, and the Chinese government has created, strengthened, and coordinated multiple dispute-resolution institutions to manage social conflicts and protests. Accommodating the aggrieved prevents the accumulation of grievances in society, but concessions require resources. As the frequency and scale of collective action are closely tied to the political opportunity for action, the Chinese government has also contained protest by shaping the political opportunity available to the aggrieved. Cai and Chen show that when the Chinese central government prioritizes social control, as it has under Xi Jinping's leadership, it signals that it will tolerate local governments' use of coercion. The result is an environment that is not conducive to the mobilization of collective action, large-scale occurrences of which have been uncommon in China in recent years.

This study examines public attitudes toward China in Taiwan and Hong Kong. It finds that before 2019, a majority of people in Taiwan and Hong Kong held positive views about the future development of China. However, many of their positive views suddenly changed during the 2019–2020 period. Those two years witnessed several contingent events underlining political tensions across the Taiwan Strait, and between China and Hong Kong. In addition, this study shows that self-interest considerations and ideology-oriented factors have different effects on public attitudes toward China in Taiwan and Hong Kong. In Taiwan, both self-interest and ideology-oriented factors have significant impacts; in Hong Kong, only ideological factors, including local identity, party identification, and belief in democracy, have significant associations with public attitudes toward China. (J Contemp China/GIGA)

Protesters in China may face two types of targets. One is the target of blame that is deemed responsible for causing their grievances, whereas the other is believed to be obligated to solve their grievances. Upward targeting occurs when citizens whose grievances are connected to lower-level authorities approach higher-level authorities for solutions. Based on a collection of over 12,000 instances of collective protest in China from 2000 to 2018, this study finds that some groups—such as small groups, veterans, and petitioners—are more likely to resort to upward targeting than others. However, collective actions directed at central authorities are more likely to be suppressed. Blame attribution and the difficulties in coordinating large-scale upward-targeting actions have combined to manifest protest patterns in China. (J Contemp China/GIGA)

Abstract
Four articles are included in this topical section on 'Taiwan as Epistemic Challenger'. Two of the four contributions were originally presented at the 3rd World Congress of Taiwan Studies held on 6–8 September 2018 at Academia Sinica in Taipei. The main theme of this Congress was 'Taiwan in the Globalized World: The Relevance of Taiwan Studies to the Social Sciences and Humanities'. The other two contributions were accepted through a call for papers. The topical section aims to demonstrate that Taiwanese scholars and foreign researchers of Taiwanese society can transcend the competitive disadvantage of studying a single country and make Taiwan visible in international scholarship. The findings of relevant Taiwan studies research can instead modify the epistemic assumptions and methodology in different disciplines of the social sciences and humanities.

part I. Measuring social capital -- part II. Endogeneity of social capital : structural and network features -- part III. Accessing and mobilizing social capital : institutional, networking and organizational factors -- part IV. Social capital and well-being.

"This volume is a collection of original studies based on one of the first research programs on comparative analysis of social capital. Data are drawn from national representative samples of the United States, China and Taiwan. The three societies selected for study allow the examination of how political-economic regimes (command versus market) and cultural factors (family centrality versus diverse social ties) affect the characteristics of social ties and social networks from which resources are accessed and mobilized"--