Popular Politics and the Quest for Justice in Contemporary China

Popular Politics and the Quest for Justice in Contemporary China PDF

Author: Susanne Brandtstädter

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-06-14

Total Pages: 178

ISBN-13: 1315391929

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The rise of popular politics is among one the most significant social and political developments the People’s Republic of China has witnessed in the post-Mao era. People from all walks of life have responded to rising inequalities and the privatization of collective goods with a new quest for justice. Although China has remained a censorial society under the authoritarian rule of the Chinese Communist Party, state-society relations are being remade by interventions of emergent publics through word and action. In this book, a group of anthropologists, specializing in Chinese society, examine various facets of popular politics, which are animated by the pursuit of justice, fairness and good government. The ethnographic chapters collectively analyse how ‘the political’ arises in particular judicial situations, provoking public judgements or other forms of critical engagement. Focusing on the interplay between private and public spaces, between morality and law and between speech and action, the contributors in this book explore how such engagements are changing Chinese society from the bottom-up. As the first systematic exploration of the relationship between popular politics, emergent publics and notions of justice in contemporary China, this book will be useful for students of Chinese Studies, Politics and Anthropology.

Popular Politics and the Quest for Justice in Contemporary China

Popular Politics and the Quest for Justice in Contemporary China PDF

Author: Susanne Brandtstädter

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2017-06-14

Total Pages: 179

ISBN-13: 1315391937

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Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- List of contributors -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction - Judging the state: emerging publics and the quest for justice in contemporary China -- 1 'Battles over green space': land disputes, rights activism, and emerging publics in urban China -- 2 Making personal life political: political trajectories of everyday conversations in China's online communities -- 3 Marginalizing the law: corporate social responsibility, worker hotlines and the shifting grounds of rights consciousness in contemporary China -- 4 Judging publics and contested exclusion: the moral economy of citizenship in China -- 5 Policy documents: imaginations of the state and the struggle for justice in a Chinese land-losing village -- 6 Fighting for one's life: the making and unmaking of public goods in the Yunnanese countryside -- 7 Public Buddhist philosophy: civic engagement and discursive space among a religious group in Shanghai -- 8 Concealing and revealing senses of justice in rural China -- A brief afterword -- Index.

China's Quest for Political Legitimacy

China's Quest for Political Legitimacy PDF

Author: Baogang Guo

Publisher: Lexington Books

Published: 2010-09-23

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 1461633125

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This book examines the new equity-enhancing politics in China in the context of Chinese traditional cognitive patterns of political legitimacy and its implication for Chinese political development in the near future. Based on an analysis of the new governing philosophy, the generation of political elite, and a new set of public policies, the book reaffirms the emergence of a new Chinese polity that infuses one-party rule with limited electoral and deliberative democracies. Unlike many scholars who perceive the contemporary Chinese history as a constant search for democracy, this book takes a very different approach. It asserts that the enduring question in political development in China today is no different from what was sought after throughout Chinese history, namely, the constant search for political legitimacy. Even though the quest for democracy is instrumental to that end, it may not ultimately lead to the embrace of a full-fledged liberal democracy. The new politics is not only a rationalization of the efficiency-based development, but also a major paradigm shift in China's developmental strategy.

Popular Political Support in Urban China

Popular Political Support in Urban China PDF

Author: Jie Chen

Publisher: Woodrow Wilson Center Press

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 246

ISBN-13: 0804749590

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Has the current political system in the People's Republic of China lost its legitimacy in the eyes of the Chinese public? On the basis of three carefully drawn surveys of Beijing residents between 1995 and 1999, the author finds that diffuse support for the current political system—based on attitudes toward institutions and values—remains strong, at least among city-dwellers, though it is gradually declining. Specific support for current political authorities, as measured by evaluations of their performance in major policy domains, is much weaker, with many citizens evaluating the authorities' performance as mediocre. In analyzing the longitudinal data presented here, the author finds that the same set of key sociodemographic attributes and sociopolitical orientations variably influence citizens' attitudes toward the political system and their evaluations of leaders' performance. Further, the study shows that citizens' attitudes toward the system, on the one hand, and their evaluation of incumbents' performance on the other, have different impacts on forms of political participation, such as voting and contacting authorities.

Protest with Chinese Characteristics

Protest with Chinese Characteristics PDF

Author: Ho-fung Hung

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2011-05-31

Total Pages: 283

ISBN-13: 0231525451

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The origin of political modernity has long been tied to the Western history of protest and revolution, the currents of which many believe sparked popular dissent worldwide. Reviewing nearly one thousand instances of protest in China from the eighteenth to the early-nineteenth centuries, Ho-fung Hung charts an evolution of Chinese dissent that stands apart from Western trends. Hung samples from mid-Qing petitions and humble plaints to the emperor. He revisits rallies, riots, market strikes, and other forms of contention rarely considered in previous studies. Drawing on new world history, which accommodates parallels and divergences between political-economic and cultural developments East and West, Hung shows how the centralization of political power and an expanding market, coupled with a persistent Confucianist orthodoxy, shaped protesters' strategies and appeals in Qing China. This unique form of mid-Qing protest combined a quest for justice and autonomy with a filial-loyal respect for the imperial center, and Hung's careful research ties this distinct characteristic to popular protest in China today. As Hung makes clear, the nature of these protests prove late imperial China was anything but a stagnant and tranquil empire before the West cracked it open. In fact, the origins of modern popular politics in China predate the 1911 Revolution. Hung's work ultimately establishes a framework others can use to compare popular protest among different cultural fabrics. His book fundamentally recasts the evolution of such acts worldwide.

Social Disciplining and Civilising Processes in China

Social Disciplining and Civilising Processes in China PDF

Author: Thomas Heberer

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-08-11

Total Pages: 177

ISBN-13: 1000924890

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This book argues that a major part of the Chinese government’s road map, formulated in 2017, to modernise China comprehensively by 2049 is the process of social disciplining. It contends that the Chinese state sees that modernisation and modernity encompass not only economic and political–administrative change but are also related to the organisation of society in general and the disciplining of this society and its individuals to create people with “modernised” minds and behaviour; and that, moreover, the Chinese state is aspiring to a modernity with “Chinese characteristics”. The question of modernising by disciplining was extensively dealt with in the twentieth century by leading Western social scientists including Max Weber, Norbert Elias and Michel Foucault, who argued that disciplining, extending from external coercion towards the internalisation of restraints, is indispensable for achieving social order and thereby for “civilisation” –but defined from a European perspective, in relation to developments in Europe. This book therefore not only discusses the Chinese experience of social disciplining, but also, by looking at a non-Western society, identifies universal tendencies of societal change and social disciplining and separates them from particular occurrences.

The Search for Modern China

The Search for Modern China PDF

Author: Jonathan D. Spence

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 1990

Total Pages: 1054

ISBN-13: 9780393307801

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In this widely acclaimed history of modern China, Jonathan Spence achieves a fine blend of narrative richness and efficiency. The Search for Modern China offers a matchless introduction to China's history.

China's Relations with Central and Eastern Europe

China's Relations with Central and Eastern Europe PDF

Author: Weiqing Song

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-10-04

Total Pages: 247

ISBN-13: 1351850741

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As China rises as an economic and an international power, new relationships are being forged with all areas of the world including Central and Eastern Europe. This book explores how this relationship is developing. It considers how China’s links with Central and Eastern Europe fit in to China’s overall international relations strategies. It looks at economic and trade ties, diplomatic initiatives and the role of the European Union, and examines China’s bilateral relations with the different states of the region. These relationships are particularly interesting because before the end of communism in Eastern Europe China had many direct links with the countries of the region.

Political Values and Narratives of Resistance

Political Values and Narratives of Resistance PDF

Author: Fiona Anciano

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-03-23

Total Pages: 202

ISBN-13: 1000362140

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This book brings together multidisciplinary perspectives to explore how political values and acts of resistance impact the delivery of social justice in post-colonial states. Everyday life in post-colonial states, such as South Africa and Zimbabwe, is characterized by injustices that have both a historical and contemporary nature. From fishers in Cape Town accused of poaching, to residents of Bulawayo demanding access to water, this book focuses on the relationship between the state and groups that have been historically oppressed due to being on the margins of the political, economic and social system. It draws on empirical research from 12 scholars looking at cases in Brazil, India, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Chapters explore questions such as what citizens, especially those from marginalized groups, want from the state. The book looks at the political values of citizens and how these are formed in the process of engaging with the state and through everyday injustices. It also asks why and how citizens resist the state, with examples of protest, as well as less visible forms of resistance reflecting complex histories and power relations. Finally, the book explores how narratives and counter-narratives reveal the nature of political values and perceptions of what is just. Taken together these elements show the evolution of post-colonial social contracts. Examining important themes in political science, anthropology, sociology and urban geography, this book will appeal to scholars and students interested in political values, justice, social movements and resistance.

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