New Socialist Men and Women? Communist Legacy and Political Engagement in China

• In Event: Accountability in Hybrid and Authoritarian Regimes

Abstract

As one of the most ambitious political experiments in human history, communism used to rule nearly a third of the world's population for almost half a century, but the legacies of communist rule is not yet well understood. This paper examines the persistent effects of communism on individuals' political attitudes and behaviors by leveraging regional variations in the extensiveness of communist institutions created by the China's Third-Front Movement (TFM), a massive industrial relocation project during the 1960s and 70s that moved large-scale industrial-administrative complexes into rural and interior areas. To address the endogeneity issues, we instrument the destinations of TFM using plausibly exogenous variations in both local typography and air distance to key U.S military bases. Our analysis suggests that, contrary to the contemporary popular portrayal of communism as an “extractive" or "exclusive" institution, individuals living in TFM areas actually show a greater propensity to voice their complaints and to engage with the government. Additional analysis further suggests that socialized habitual preference on governmental channel and relatively increased educational attainments are two main mechanisms behind greater engagement. Our findings provide a more nuanced interpretation of nature and impact of a politico-economic institution that once stood as a major alternative to the Western liberal democracy.

Authors

• Jing Xu

• Tianguang Meng, Tsinghua University