Entrusted: A Foundation for Citizenship under Authoritarianism

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

Abstract

Why do average citizens participate in authoritarian states that routinely constrain or violate their liberties? Existing scholarship identifies trust as a key factor in explaining public participation in authoritarian settings, but most work focuses narrowly on citizen trust in government and state institutions. Instead, I argue that trust can be multi-dimensional and multi-directional, including trust in society as well as an ego-centric sense of entrustment on the part of the individual by the state. Based on surveys conducted with Chinese respondents are more likely to support authoritarian policies and contribute to state-led collective action when they feel trusted by the state. Building on the survey results, I look at historical and contemporary examples of how authoritarian states can manufacture feelings of entrustment.

Author

• Dimitar D Gueorguiev, Syracuse University