Focal Moments and Protests in Autocracies
How Pro-democracy Anniversaries Shape Dissent in China
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6285286 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Erin Baggott Carter (0000-0002-9196-8572, University of Southern California, corresponding author), Brett L Carter (0000-0002-4443-8798, University of Southern California) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 64 |
| Issue | 10 |
| Pages | 1796-1827 |
| Publication date | 2020-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Conflict Resolution (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-0027 • E-ISSN: 1552-8766 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0022002720932995 |
| OpenAlex | W3033132729 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 18 |
| References cited | 64 |
Social scientists have long observed that focal points enable citizens to coordinate collective action. For antiregime protests in autocracies, however, focal points also enable repressive governments to prepare in advance. We propose a theory to explain when citizens are likely to employ focal points to organize antiregime protests. Our key insight is that tacit coordination is most critical when explicit coordination is costly. Empirically, we use our theory to identify a setting where focal points are likely to be salient and then argue that the anniversaries of failed pro-democracy movements satisfy conditions for focality. In China, we find that the anniversaries of failed pro-democracy movements occasion nearly 30 percent more protests than any other day. Protests during pro-democracy anniversaries are more likely to employ “rights-conscious” discourse, which scholars have argued is code for democratic resistance, and to be repressed by the government. We find no similar trends for other holidays
Autocracy · China · Collective action · Democracy · Dissent · Government (linguistics · Linguistics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Salient · Sociology · China's Ethnic Minorities and Relations · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Hong Kong and Taiwan Politics · Law
Why Does China Allow Freer Social Media? Protests versus Surveillance and Propaganda
Protest Event Analysis Meets Autocracy
Rationalizing protests – From individuals to networks
Adverse effects of repressive policies
Communication, coordination, and surveillance in the shadow of repression
Who Represses? Career Incentives and the Geography of Repression in China
Demographic features or spatial structures? Unpacking local variation during the 2022 Iranian protests
Nationalist focal events and anti-minority violence–how soldier funerals spark ethnic riots in Turkey
Bias in Text Analysis for International Relations Research
Political Discontent in China Is Associated with Isolating Personality Traits
Elite Selection in Single-Party Autocracies
Sacred Time and Religious Violence
Can Western Donors Constrain Repressive Governments? Evidence from Debt Relief Negotiations in Africa
Broadcasting Out-Group Repression to the In-Group
Political Self-Censorship in Authoritarian States
When Autocrats Threaten Citizens with Violence
Coordinated Dis-Coordination
International Sports Events and Repression in Autocracies
Democracy’s Fourth Wave?
Collective Resistance in China
Powerful Patriots
Defeating Authoritarian Leaders in Postcommunist Countries
The Politics of Authoritarian Rule
Rightful Resistance in Rural China
Taxation without Representation in Contemporary Rural China
Self-Enforcing Democracy
Assessing Censorship on Microblogs in China
Challenging The Mandate Of Heaven
Why civil resistance works
Democracy Protests
The Failure of Democracy in the Republic of Congo
The Logic of Collective Action
The Pseudo-Democrat's Dilemma
Silence and Voice in the Study of Contentious Politics
Mobilizing without the Masses
The face of internet recruitment
Governing memory
Can You Hear Me Now? How Communication Technology Affects Protest and Repression
Regularizing Rioting
Rights Consciousness and Rules Consciousness in Contemporary China
In the Name of the Public
From Blind Spot to Media Spotlight
A Middle Class Without Democracy. Economic Growth and the Prospects for Democratization in China
Elections and Social Conflict in Africa, 1990–2009
Safety Valve or Pressure Cooker? Blogs in Chinese Political Life
Regime Cycles
Autocracy
Social protest and contentious authoritarianism in China
Media, Protest Diffusion, and Authoritarian Resilience
Constituency Service under Nondemocratic Rule
When Does Repression Work? Collective Action in Social Networks
Enough! Electoral Fraud, Collective Action Problems, and Post-Communist Colored Revolutions
China's Changing of the Guard
Focal Points, Dissident Calendars, and Preemptive Repression
Lying or Believing? Measuring Preference Falsification From a Political Purge in China
Ethnic Networks
China's Strategic Censorship
Does Truth Lead to Reconciliation? Testing the Causal Assumptions of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Process
Repression and Activism among the Arab Spring’s First Movers
When Do Governments Resort to Election Violence
Coups and Democracy
The Color of Money
Disrespect for Human Rights and Contentious Participation
Politics at the Boundary
State Behavior and the Intensification of Intellectual Criticism in China
"Chinese Conceptions of "Rights
Self-censorship of regime support in authoritarian states
Why Does China Allow Freer Social Media? Protests versus Surveillance and Propaganda
How Censorship in China Allows Government Criticism but Silences Collective Expression
Why Resource-poor Dictators Allow Freer Media
The Role of Blame in Collective Action
Preventive Repression
Transparency, Protest, and Autocratic Instability
Reevaluating the Middle-Class Protest Paradigm
How the Chinese Government Fabricates Social Media Posts for Strategic Distraction, Not Engaged Argument
Repression, Micromobilization, and Political Protest
Rightful resistance revisited
| Unique citing works | 18 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2017 - 2026 (10) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 18 |