Authoritarian Resilience and Legitimacy in China and Beyond

Session Submission Type: Created Panel

Session Description

Five papers in this panel discusses the theme of authoritarian resilience and legitimacy in China. Gueorguiev’s paper discusses how average citizens participate in authoritarian states when they feel trusted by the state. Mukhin shows how nepotism in autocracies has buttressed regime stability devised by conventions adopted at critical junctures to structure elite behavior in China, Vietnam and Laos. Scoggins describes “everyday violence” in Chinese cities and the dynamics of state-society conflicts. Han tells us how communism as an ideology fare in the post-reform and digital age China. Lee, Qi and Sun show us how coercive social mobilization, such as the “sent-down” movement in the 60s and 70s, actually strengthened authoritarianism by altering citizen’s patterns of trust.

Sub Unit

• Division 13: Politics of Communist and Former Communist Countries

Individual Presentations

• Entrusted: A Foundation for Citizenship under Authoritarianism - Dimitar D Gueorguiev, Syracuse University

• Sons of Revolution: Nepotism as a Source of Authoritarian Resilience - Nikolai Mukhin, American University of Sharjah

• Everyday Violence: Resisting State Power in China - Suzanne E. Scoggins, Clark University

• Red Genes: Communism Nostalgia and Authoritarian Legitimation in China - Rongbin Han, University of Georgia

• State Mobilization and Political Attitudes: The Legacy of Maoist Resettlement - Alexander Lee, University of Rochester; Weihong Qi, University of Rochester; Dehua Sun, University of Rochester

Chair

• Ning Leng Georgetown University

Discussants

• Jeremy L. Wallace Johns Hopkins University

• Ning Leng Georgetown University