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Lynette H. Ong
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Outsourcing Repression: Everyday State Power in Contemporary China

by Lynette H. Ong (Author)

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A compelling examination of China's engagement of nonstate actors as a counterintuitive solution to coerce citizens while minimizing backlash against the state.

How do states coerce citizens into compliance while simultaneously minimizing backlash? In Outsourcing Repression, Lynette H. Ong examines how the Chinese state engages nonstate actors, from violent street gangsters to nonviolent grassroots brokers, to coerce and mobilize the masses for state pursuits, while reducing costs and minimizing resistance. She draws on ethnographic research conducted annually from 2011 to 2019--the years from Hu Jintao to Xi Jinping, a unique and original event dataset, and a collection of government regulations in a study of everyday land grabs and housing demolition in China. Theorizing a counterintuitive form of repression that reduces resistance and backlash, Ong invites the reader to reimagine the new ground state power credibly occupies. Everyday state power is quotidian power acquired through society by penetrating nonstate territories and mobilizing the masses within. Ong uses China's urbanization scheme as a window of observation to explain how the arguments can be generalized to other country contexts.
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  1. ISBN-10
    019762877X
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0197628775
  3. Publisher
    Oxford University Press
  4. Publication date
    May 13, 2022
  5. Language
    English
  6. Dimensions
    5.9 x 0.8 x 8.8 inches
  7. Print length
    288 pages
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A granular, documented, and persuasive analysis of how authoritarian control is maintained on a quotidian basis in Xi's China. Lest we ever doubt that all authoritarian regimes operate 'outside' even their own hand-tailored, legal order, this fine study closes the case. A discerning examination of the atomization, perversion, and cooptation of what might otherwise be a mobilized, autonomous civil society." -- James C. Scott, Yale University

"Outsourcing Repression is a fascinating study of an important but underexplored issue about state control in China―outsourcing state repression to non-state actors. Analytically rigorous, this book uncovers how the state exercises its everyday coercion by securing the collaboration of social actors, mainly thugs-for-hire and brokers. This is an important book that sheds new light on the coercive power of authoritarian states." -- Yongshun Cai, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

"Ong provides what's likely to be the definitive account of socialized repression in contemporary China. That the state uses third parties to extend its power down to the grassroots (and to avoid backlash) is one of the key features of China's hardening authoritarianism, and a development of great importance to China scholars and comparativists alike." -- Kevin J. O'Brien, University of California, Berkeley

"Outsourcing Repression is a captivating study of China's use of, and interactions with, nonstate actors as a means to consolidate its control over its population." -- Europe-Asia Studies

"The book makes significant contributions to our understanding of power struggles in China's forced demolition and land-grabbing and the nature of everyday state power. It will be of interest to readers from political science, sociology, criminology, urban studies and China studies." -- Jianhua Xu, The China Quarterly

About the Author

Lynette H. Ong is an associate professor of political science at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto. She is the author of Prosper or Perish: Credit and Fiscal Systems in Rural China (2012). Her work has been published in Comparative Politics, Perspectives on Politics, Foreign Affairs, and other outlets.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 13, 2022
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 019762877X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0197628775
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.9 x 0.8 x 8.8 inches
  • Best Sellers Rank: #1,729,038 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Lynette H. Ong

Lynette H. Ong

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