| Summary/Abstract |
The rise and fall of public intellectuals in contemporary China is essentially attributed to the ever changing state–society relations. The author demonstrates that some Chinese public intellectuals have developed a new strategy to promote policy changes in the Hu–Wen era through civic activism in the name of ordinary citizens, by abandoning their traditional capacity as experts or intellectuals. The article summarizes three specific actions of civic activism, namely, ‘petition for constitutionality review as citizens’, ‘provisional voluntary citizen groups’ and ‘netizen public welfare enterprises’. Cases have been studied to demonstrate that the policy entrepreneurship of public intellectuals in civic activism can be manifested as innovation and strategies that challenge the lacunae between policy and existing institutions.
|