Social Organizations and the Authoritarian State in China
Cambridge University Press
Edition: Illustrated, 6/27/2013
EAN 9781107021310, ISBN10: 1107021316
Hardcover, 234 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
Received wisdom suggests that social organizations (such as non-government organizations, NGOs) have the power to upend the political status quo. However, in many authoritarian contexts, such as China, NGO emergence has not resulted in this expected regime change. In this book, Timothy Hildebrandt shows how NGOs adapt to the changing interests of central and local governments, working in service of the state to address social problems. In doing so, the nature of NGO emergence in China effectively strengthens the state, rather than weakens it. This book offers a groundbreaking comparative analysis of Chinese social organizations across the country in three different issue areas: environmental protection, HIV/AIDS prevention, and gay and lesbian rights. It suggests a new way of thinking about state-society relations in authoritarian countries, one that is distinctly co-dependent in nature: governments require the assistance of NGOs to govern while NGOs need governments to extend political, economic and personal opportunities to exist.
1. Self-limiting organizations and co-dependent state-society relations
environmental, HIV/AIDS, and gay and lesbian NGOs in China
2. Political opportunities, by accident and design
3. Central policies, local priorities
regional variation of the political opportunity structure
4. Proximate solutions to insoluble problems
adaption to the political opportunity structure
5. More money, more problems
struggling with economic opportunities
6. Forever the twain shall meet
economic and political opportunities converge
7. Strong individual relationships, weak institutional ties
the double-edged pursuit of personal opportunities
8. Social organizations and the future of Chinese civil society.