【4月15日都市政治学术沙龙】王慧玲：Resources and Rewards vs. Risks of Protests in Urban and Rural China

国务学院“都市政治学术沙龙”  

讲座题目：Resources and Rewards vs. Risks of Protests in Urban and Rural China  

演讲嘉宾：王慧玲（Lynette H. Ong）  

沙龙主持：谢岳教授，BETVLCTOR伟德唯一官网  

活动时间：2016年4月15日 周五 14:00-16:00  

活动地点：新建楼3005室  

嘉宾简介：Lynette H. Ong is an associate professor of political science at the Asian Institute, Munk School of Global Affairs, the University of Toronto. Her publications have appeared in Comparative Politics, International Political Science Review, China Quarterly, Foreign Affairs, among others. She is the author of Prosper or Perish: Rural Credit and Fiscal Systems in China, Cornell University Press, 2012. Her research interests lie in authoritarian politics, contentious politics, and the political economy of development.  

讲座内容：What motivates people to take their grievances to the streets in an authoritarian country? Existing social movement literature based on studies of Western democracies may not necessarily apply to illiberal states. Drawing from the China General Survey of Social Science 2010 (CGSS 2010) data, we seek to understand what drives citizens to protest in China where the costs of participation are considerably higher. We find strong evidence for education, typically conceived as a key enabling resource in protests, to be negatively associated with protest participation. There are, however, significant differences between political participation in the urban and rural samples. A sense of unfairness in income is a greater driver of protest in urban than in rural areas. We find some, though weak, evidence that suggests as urban residents become wealthier over time, they will increasingly turn to protests as a form of political participation, demanding greater accountability of government and corporate actions.