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About
Why hasn't the emergence of capitalism led China's citizenry to press for liberal democratic change? This book argues that China's combination of state-led development, late industrialization, and socialist legacies have affected popular perceptions of socioeconomic mobility, economic dependence on the state, and political options, giving citizens incentives to perpetuate the political status quo and disincentives to embrace liberal democratic change. Wright addresses the ways in which China's political and economic development shares broader features of state-led late industrialization and post-socialist transformation with countries as diverse as Mexico, India, Tunisia, Indonesia, South Korea, Brazil, Russia, and Vietnam. With its detailed analysis of China's major socioeconomic groups (private entrepreneurs, state sector workers, private sector workers, professionals and students, and farmers), Accepting Authoritarianism is an up-to-date, comprehensive, and coherent text on the evolution of state-society relations in reform-era China.
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Reviews
"The book is well paced, informative, and jargon-free, and for all these reasons it would be a good selection for university courses on contemporary China."
Jonathan Unger, China Review International
"Accepting Authoritarianism ingeniously and exhaustively plumbs the literature on five key social groups in contemporary China to build a powerful and convincing case arguing that the incentive structure facing Chinese citizens encourages them to sustain the rule of the Communist Party-at least for awhile."
Dorothy J. Solinger, University of California, Irvine
"Wright draws extensively on existing research to develop a cogent explanation of the broad-based support in China for the ruling Communist Party . . . Recommended."
J. M. Peek, Choice