State Mobilization and Political Attitudes: The Legacy of Maoist Resettlement

• In Event: Authoritarian Resilience and Legitimacy in China and Beyond

Abstract

What are the effects of campaigns of coercive social mobilization on political attitudes? We show that such policies can strengthen authoritarian regimes by altering citizen’s patterns of trust. Between 1968 and 1978, 16 to 17 million Chinese teenagers were “sent-down” to labor in rural areas, where they lived without their families under difficult conditions. Using a regression discontinuity design to ac- count for selection into being sent down, we show that former sent-down students are more critical of local government performance than others, but less critical of the national government and more supportive of the regime in general. We see no significant differences in political participation, though there is some suggestive evidence that the sent-down students are more likely to favor officially sanctioned political activities. These results appear to stem from the close social control and isolation from family associated with the sent-down experience.

Authors

• Alexander Lee, University of Rochester

• Weihong Qi, University of Rochester

• Dehua Sun, University of Rochester