Cities and Stability
Urbanization, Redistribution, and Regime Survival in China
1st Edition
Published on 26. June 2014
272 pages
978-0-19-937900-2 (ISBN)
Description
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.
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Person
Jeremy L. Wallace is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the Ohio State University.
Content
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Urban Bias: A Faustian Bargain
Chapter 3: Cities, Redistribution, and Regime Survival
Chapter 4: China's Loophole to the Faustian Bargain of Urban Bias
Chapter 5: The Fiscal Shift: Migration, Instability, & Redistribution
Chapter 6: Return to Sender: Hukou, Stimulus, & the Great Recession
Chapter 7: Under Pressure: Urban Bias and External Forces
Chapter 8: Conclusion
Bibliography
Appendix
