Refocusing on Repression: Institutions of Everyday Social Control in China

Abstract

Recent literature on comparative authoritarianism emphasizes the evolution from fear-based rule rooted in violence and indoctrination to a softer, savvier brand of dictatorship that trades on democratic-looking institutions and manipulation of the information environment. The case of contemporary China---where leaders have incorporated a range of old and new repressive tactics to exert control over society---complicates this trajectory. Leveraging novel data sources and a variety of empirical methods, this dissertation assesses the everyday mechanics of repression in China. In three papers that each examine a distinct coercive institution---the communal canteens of the Great Famine era (1958-1961), and neighborhood policing and digital surveillance in contemporary China---this project returns our focus to repression, and provides new insights into how a strong, authoritarian state has synthesized a range of repressive strategies to maintain order and power in the world’s most populous autocracy.