Sources of Authoritarian Responsiveness: A Field Experiment in China

A growing body of research suggests that authoritarian regimes are responsive to societal actors, but our understanding of the sources of authoritarian responsiveness remains limited because of the challenges of measurement and causal identification. By conducting an online field experiment among 2,...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:American journal of political science 2016-04, Vol.60 (2), p.383-400
Main Authors: Chen, Jidong, Pan, Jennifer, Xu, Yiqing
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Authoritarianism
Citizens
Collective action
Communist parties
Counties
County governments
Field experiments
Government officials
Identification
Incentives
Internet
Local government
Oversight
Political science
Provincial government
Response rates
Standard error
Websites
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:A growing body of research suggests that authoritarian regimes are responsive to societal actors, but our understanding of the sources of authoritarian responsiveness remains limited because of the challenges of measurement and causal identification. By conducting an online field experiment among 2,103 Chinese counties, we examine factors that affect officials' incentives to respond to citizens in an authoritarian context. At baseline, we find that approximately one-third of county governments respond to citizen demands expressed online. Threats of collective action and threats of tattling to upper levels of government cause county governments to be considerably more responsive, whereas identifying as loyal, long-standing members of the Chinese Communist Party does not increase responsiveness. Moreover, we find that threats of collective action make local officials more publicly responsive. Together, these results demonstrate that top-down mechanisms of oversight as well as bottom-up societal pressures are possible sources of authoritarian responsiveness.
ISSN:0092-5853
1540-5907
DOI:10.1111/ajps.12207