The modern state has taken much power (in taxation, law, welfare and war-making, etc) away from the local communities and is increasingly relevant to people's lives (Howard 1976; Mann 1986; Tilly 1992). The more a state gains power over the people, the more its presence is felt by the people. Revolution and social movement can thus be seen as people's attempt to harness the increasingly powerful state or to use the state to advance sectarian interests (Bright and Harding 1984; Tilly 1975, 1978, 1986; Tilly et al. 1975). The state plays a more important role in shaping the contentious politics under authoritarian regimes than in democracies. Authoritarian states tend to exert greater control over people's lives and politicize the matters under their control. Most authoritarian states are also less developed and tend to play a more active role in economic development (Evans 1995; Gershenkron 1952; Migdal 1994; Wade 1990; Zhao and Hall 1994), which often generates state-centered grievances. The policies of authoritarian states are more likely to be predatory due to the lack of efficient bureaucracy and democratic politics. The sense of injustice tends to be much stronger among the people under an authoritarian state than in a democracy.
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- 1.
For example, food riots were common in eighteenth century Europe. However, food became a political issue in France because the Old Regime accepted responsibility for the bread supply (Mann 1993, Chap. 6). Also, in China before the 1990s, job security was usually a political issue because the state took the responsibility. However, during the 1990s, after the labor market reform, job security became increasingly an economic issue tied with the perfor mance of individual companies.
- 2.
In this article, the meaning of contentious politics is limited to revolution, social movement and riot, which is slightly different from McAdam et al (2001) definition.
- 3.
See http://cpc.people.com.cn/GB/64093/64099/7613285.html, and http://politics.people.com.cn/GB/1026//7490555. html.
- 4.
- 5.
Here, the key lies in the top state elite's and the people's different understandings of the basis of state legitimacy. While the majority of top state elite still hung on to the communist ideology, most people judged the state by its eco nomic and moral performance. Thus, when the government was challenged ideologically and morally, the challenge resonated widely. However, when the government invoked ideological or legal dimensions of state authority to control the movement, its measures only antagonized people. The interaction between the top state elite and the people thus replicated Garfinkel's “breaching experiments” mechanism.
- 6.
Many organizations in authoritarian regimes structurally resemble the authoritarian state or even the secret society, which contributes to the dynamics of contentious politics in their own interesting ways.
- 7.
For example, in the United States, the elite and the majority of the population seldom question the legitimacy of government repression during the early stages of working class movements and the Civil Rights Movement. In China, by contrast, it is difficult to find a case in which the police are not widely condemned once they hurt the protesters even if the police responses are out of desperate self-protection.
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Zhao, D. (2010). Authoritarian State and Contentious Politics. In: Leicht, K.T., Jenkins, J.C. (eds) Handbook of Politics. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-68930-2_25
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