Pesqué-Cela, V., Tao R., Liu, Y. and Sun, L. :
069_DP87 Challenging, Complementing or Assuming 'the Mandate of Heaven'?
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Abstract:
The emergence of self-governing social organizations is one of the most significant yet unexplored developments in rural China. By conducting a nationwide village-level survey, we find that these organizations are playing an important role in the provision of local public goods and services. To explain the striking variation in villagers' participation rates in these organizations, we find that the level of villagers' distrust in township leaders exerts a significant and positive influence on the participation rate. We argue that, when distrusting local government officials, for their unwillingness or inability to provide public goods and services, villagers might attempt to participate in alternative social organizations which enable them to serve their own and community's interests autonomously. We also find that lineage structure, inter-lineage tensions and labour out-migration have significant impacts on villagers' participation in such social organizations.
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