Actions Speak Louder Than Words: Participation After Protest and Repression

• In Event: Chinese Politics Mini-Conference: Dimensions of Dissent: Protest in Contemporary China

Abstract

Authoritarian regimes often repress social movements and censor any discussion of them after the fact. How does the experience of living through such a movement affect an individual's willingness to participate in politics? In this paper, we examine the long-term impact of mobilization and repression on political participation by surveying individuals who began their undergraduate education in Beijing just before and just after the onset of the 1989 democracy movement. We find that the impact of exposure to the movement is nuanced; individuals who were directly exposed to the movement and the government crackdown are more likely to protest and turn out to vote, but they are less likely to talk about politics. Our findings indicate that exposure to a social movement and state repression can continue to shape patterns of political participation, more than twenty-five years later, even if public discussion of the movement is prohibited.

Authors

• Scott W. Desposato, UCSD

• Gang Wang, Wuhan University

• Jason Yuyan Wu, Indiana University