| Summary/Abstract |
Using riot police to break up a big demonstration is a familiar occurrence
in many parts of the world, including China. But all protest
control does not involve the use of force, nor is repression always
directed at large groups of people assembled in one location. Some
repression rests on psychological rather than physical coercion and is
aimed at individuals, often in their homes or nearby. This type of
repression may be carried out by people with only a loose connection
to the state’s coercive apparatus, such as relatives, friends, or neighbors
of the target who work for the government or receive benefi ts from it.
“Relational repression” is labor intensive and a sign of a high-capacity
state that uses multiple levers to suppress contention, but has limited
reach and remains insecure about its ability to maintain social stability.
It builds on Maoist and dynastic techniques of control and aims to
extend state penetration into a marketized society whose members have increasingly emancipated themselves from direct dependence on the
government. Relational repression oft en alienates both the agents of
repression and their targets. But it can, at times, be eff ective in demobilizing
resistance or preventing a person from taking part in protest.
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