1. Maoist participation, mass line (top-down participation)
            to support Mao, attack Mao's enemies
            power remained concentrated:
            result: cynicism, apathy

2. Modernization, creates heterogeneity
    Jiang Zemin tried to control social space,
    integrate, incorporate new groups with mass organizations;
    integrate experts, bind key groups to gov't linked organizations
    improve grassroots democracy
    upgrade intellectuals (now members of working class)

    crush independent worker's union 1 |

    mass line organizations
        trade unions
        women (some counseling services)
        China Family Planning Association
        Friends of Nature (environmental concerns)

3. Grass roots
    urban: workers' representative congress
               labor dispute mediation committees
               urban resident committees, directly elected (experiments)
                        parks, social activities, job placement, welfare
                        building management
    village committee (take over brigade), elected
            strengthen local, traditional elites
            tax collection, budgets, public goods and services,
                    order, welfare, family planning, dispute resolution
            some villages have big income, big investments
            increases public control over local activities

    township elections?  very few, experimental

4. Direct Action

    sanctioned -- petition, letter writing

    non sanctioned
        language, jokes, underground books, yellow materials-- establish autonomy
        protests:
            workers - strikes, marches, protest layoffs, pension rip-offs
            peasants - demonstrations, protest fees, IOUs, pollution Dec05   2005 stats
                note in Hunan Hong Xiuquan's younger brother wants to revive equal land of Taiping
            Fa Lun Gong
            street demonstrations
            elderly sit ins on housing relocation
            serious tensions, Spring 2006

     By 2004-06, there was a confluence of demonstrations and disorder by

• farmers
• factory workers
• relgious groups
• extensive crime, criminal gangs and networks.
• See this article from China Journal, Jan 2006


Can repression prevent these groups from joining together and organizing bigger protests?

• Can the state satisfy demands to stop projests?
• Will communism be disintegrate as it did elsewhere?

5. Intellectual dissent

        1956 - 100 flowers
        1979 - Democracy Wall
        1986 - Fang Lizhi
        1989 - Tiananmen

6. Role of the Press
    All media are under the supervision of some state agency, under party leadership.
        (usually the Ministry/Department of Propaganda)
           Media normally follow party line precisely, especially on important or sensitive matters
    Media sometimes get bold
            Trying to increase circulation
            Multiple, contradictory objectives leave considerable room for bold investigative reporting.
            support some some political faction and some values
    Tensions clear in this report (Dec05)
 

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