Why are protests rising at a faster pace than the economy in China?
23/5/2011
China has witnessed rising protests amidst the most phenomenal economic growth in the world in recent decades. In fact, the growth in the number of protests outpaces that of the economy (GDP). This odd mixture of rising protests and high economic growth has puzzled leaders and observers of China.
This puzzle can be traced to China's model of development, especially its main component, i.e. its model of governance. China's model of development is marked by an imbalance between fast opening of the economy and the society and sluggish opening of the political system. The Chinese society has become much more open, reflected in the Chinese growing awareness of their legal rights. The Chinese economy has become highly internationalized and open, but much of Chinese politics is closed. China's governance is marked by pro-growth authoritarianism. The Chinese state is effective in opening up the economy, promoting reform, and generating economic growth, but offers weak protection of people's rights and ineffectual mitigation of social grievances. These imbalances help produce social protests.
While a locality or the nation experiences economic growth, fruits of the benefits are not distributed evenly and may not be enjoyed all the people. Worse, growth under authoritarianism may be generated through ignoring and even infringing upon legitimate interests of a significant segment of the population. Growth can thus become a trigger for protests. (Abstract of the following published article).
For the full text of the article, please see the following link. If you are unable to access it, please contact the author at hongyi.lai@nottingham.ac.uk .
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a928357106~db=all~jumptype=rss
Uneven Opening of China's Society, Economy, and Politics: pro-growth authoritarian governance and protests in China, Journal of Contemporary China, Volume 19, Issue 67, 2010, Pages 819 – 835. Author: Hongyi Lai.
DOI: 10.1080/10670564.2010.508581