Debating Regime Legitimacy in Contemporary China

Suisheng Zhao is Professor and Director of the Center for China-US Cooperation at Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver, USA, and founding editor of the Journal of Contemporary China.

• Part I: The Debate on the Regime Legitimacy in China 1. How Do You Solve a Problem Like Legitimacy? Contributing to a new research agenda Peter Sandby-Thomas 2. Political Legitimacy in Contemporary China Revisited: theoretical refinement and empirical operationalization Gunter Schubert 3. The Debate on Regime Legitimacy in China: bridging the wide gulf between Western and Chinese scholarshipJinghan Zeng Part II: The Challenge of Popular Protests to the Regime Legitimacy 4. Political Process and Widespread Protests in China: The 2010 Labour Protest Ou Yang Ray 5. Disorganized Popular Contention and Local Institutional Building in China Feng Chen and Yi Kang 6. Pollution, Institutions and Street Protest in Urban China Yang Zhong, Wonjae Hwang 7. Pushing the Envelope for Representation and Participation: The Case of Homeowner Activism in Beijing Yousun Chung 8. Request for Environmental Information Disclosure in China: An Understanding from Legal Mobilization and Citizen Activism Xinhong Wang Part III: Meeting the Challenge: Repression, Adaptation and Performance Legitimacy 9. Grand Mediation and Legitimacy Enhancement in Contemporary China: the Guang’an Model Jieren Hu, Lingjian Zen 10. Performance Legitimacy, State Autonomy and China’s Economic Miracle Hongxing Yang, Dingxin Zhao 11. The Sichuan Earthquake and the Heavenly Mandate: Legitimizing Chinese rule through disaster discourse Florian Schneider, Yih-jye Hwang 12. Repression Backfires: Tactical Radicalization and Protest Spectacle in Rural China Kevin J. O’Brien, Yanhua Deng 13. Patrolling Harmony: Pre-emptive Authoritarianism and the Preservation of Stability in W County Yan Xiaojun 14. Disorganized Popular Contention and Local Institutional Building in China Feng Chen and Yi Kang

This book is a useful tool for widening the reader's understanding of China’s regime legitimacy; in particular, the various case studies highlight the complexity of the issue of political legitimacy within China. CLAUDIA ZANARDI, PhD Candidate, King’s College London, Department of War StudiesThe quality of the researches in the book makes it a valuable resource for students and researchers who are interested in the study of regime legitimacy. BAOGANG GUO, Dalton State College, USA