Description
Book SynopsisAddresses 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. The book proposes a new theory of interactive authoritarianism to explain how an adaptive authoritarian state manages nascent civil society.
Trade Review“In this brilliant and rigorous analysis, Taiyi Sun provides a unified interactive authoritarianism model and masterfully explains why robust and tolerated civil society activities could co-exist with continuous crackdowns on civil society in China. A must-read for anyone studying and interested in China.”—Cheng Li, Brooking Institution's John L. Thornton China Center
“Relying on the rich data and a solid methodological approach,
Disruptions as Opportunities advances a unified conceptual framework to understand how an authoritarian state may adapt at times of crises and institutional disruptions that are of different nature.”—Rongbin Han, University of Georgia
“Much of the civil society literature in China focuses on state-society models as an outcome but does not examine the dynamic process of how the relationship might change over time in reaction to institutional disruptions. Taiyi Sun develops a more holistic framework to explain this dynamic ‘interactive authoritarianism’ process and expands our understanding of social control in authoritarian regimes.”—Jessica C. Teets, Middlebury College
"The resilience of authoritarian rule in China is among the most time-honored questions that have produced generations of remarkable scholarship. Taiyi Sun has provided another groundbreaking explanation that focuses on the Chinese government’s artful control of a burgeoning civil society. This thought-provoking book will generate reflections and debates in the years to come."—Yuhua Wang, Harvard University
Table of 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
