Hollowed Out: The Impact and Mechanism of the Targeted Repression

• In Event: Repression and Censorship

Abstract

What is the impact of repression targeting a few people who initiate popular protests in autocracy with capacity? What is the mechanism of, if any, the effects of such targeted repression? Guided by the formal model of the networked mobilization, I argue that the targeted repression reduces the mass collective action by blocking and reversing the micro-mobilizing processes of bridging, synchronizing, and diffusing, which lie at the heart of the networked mobilization. Exploiting the 2015 Chinese government crackdown on labor activists in Guangdong Province, I test the hypotheses using a difference-in-differences strategy. The crackdown reduces workers’ collective action by about 50% to 75% in Guangdong Province of China. It is in particular detrimental to large strikes that the few initiators play an increasingly important role of mobilizing fellow workers. Taking advantage of the granular activist-worker network data, moreover, I find evidence in support of the proposed mechanisms, the diffusing process in particular. Networking by initiators spreads knowledge and experience about workers’ collective action, and removing them not only breaks down these strikes, but also chills the remaining initiators and prohibits any newcomers.

Author

• Yuequan Guo, University of Michigan