Jessica C. Teets. Civil Society Under Authoritarianism: the China Model

摘要

The relationship between economic development and political democracy is one of the most debated studies among social scientists in the contemporary era. In recent years, the future of democracy in China has gained prominence in this research agenda. China's three-and-a-half decades of economic modernization has unleashed unprecedented changes on Chinese society, but failed to bring about any fundamental changes to its authoritarian regime. While it faces a growing number of social and political challenges, the authoritarian government in China has adopted the approach of "dom-ination-cum-utilization" in order to maintain its political legitimacy and control the political outcomes of the country's economic modernization. In particular, there has been a burgeoning scholarship on the rise of Chinese civil society that manifest the evolving interests and will of Chinese citizens. A growing number of China scholars have written on this increasingly important subject. Among them, Jessica Teets' well-researched and well-written new book-Civil Society under Authoritarianism: The China Model-made great contributions to the studies of China's emerging civil society as well as state-society relations.