| Publication |
2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Can citizens in an authoritarian country like China influence
policy implementation? Two types of scholarship indicate ways that they
can: The first proposes that policy implementation is carried out through
a fragmented authoritarian system that requires consultation and cooperation among various government units, and this system is amenable to
pressure from outside groups. The second examines institutional channels designed to handle grievances and bridge communication between
citizens and the authorities. In this paper, I emphasize a link between
these two bodies of scholarship, showing how protest channels are connected to the fragmented authoritarian system and how the imperative to
maintain social stability leads higher-level authorities to resolve departmental conflicts in favour of protesters. I do this by examining a struggle
against the privatization of a hospital in North China, a case that illustrates how protesters successfully employed both the petition system and
the opportunities offered by the fragmented authoritarian system to
develop powerful alliances, to peacefully pressure top local authorities to
intervene and to overcome opposition in the local government, leading
to finalizing the municipalization of the hospital.
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