Cities and Stability: Urbanization, Redistribution, and Regime Survival in China

ISBN-13: 9780199378982 / Angielski / Twarda / 2014 / 266 str.

Jeremy Wallace

Opis

China's management of urbanization is an under-appreciated factor in the regime's longevity. The Chinese Communist Party fears "Latin Americanization" -- the emergence of highly unequal megacities with their attendant slums and social unrest. Such cities threaten the survival of nondemocratic regimes. To combat the threat, many regimes, including China's, favor cities in policymaking. Cities and Stability shows this "urban bias" to be a Faustian Bargain: cities may be stabilized for a time, but the massive in-migration from the countryside that results can generate the conditions for political upheaval. Through its hukou system of internal migration restrictions, China has avoided this dilemma, simultaneously aiding urbanites and keeping farmers in the countryside. The system helped prevent social upheaval even during the Great Recession, when tens of millions of laid-off migrant workers dispersed from coastal cities. Jeremy Wallace's powerful account forces us to rethink the relationship between cities and political stability throughout the developing world.

Recenzje

How has China navigated the dangerous shoals of explosive growth with less urban unrest and brutal repression than other nations? In this lucid, convincing, study of the prevention of slums and the dispersal of dissent, backed by impressive comparative and historical evidence, Wallace has made a lasting contribution to our understanding of urbanization and political stability.

O autorze

Assistant Professor of Political Science, Ohio State University