IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v10y2018i6p1975-d152126.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sustainable Legitimacy: Chinese Government Inspections and Public Approval of Village Leadership

Author

Listed:
  • Jinrui Xi

    (School of International Studies, Academy of Overseas Chinese Studies, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China)

Abstract

Inspections to villages are an important mechanism for the Chinese government to gain and retain its ruling legitimacy. However, whether inspections have been effectively utilized for that designated purpose of sustainable governance remains less clear. We know very little about how the Chinese government employs inspections to boost its public approval. This study sets out to examine that effect, contending that inspections to Chinese villages significantly boost the public approval of village leaderships by promoting the governing efficacy of village leaders. The consistent practice of inspections results in a sustained level of public support for the Chinese government. This causal relationship between inspections and public approval holds, first, by improving village social welfare and economic development, and second, by securing for village leaders essential political and financial support from higher authorities to better represent villagers’ interests and mediate conflicts among villagers. Using data of 961 randomly selected villages across China, the empirical analysis shows that Chinese government inspections significantly boost villagers’ approval regarding their village leaders.

Suggested Citation

  • Jinrui Xi, 2018. "Sustainable Legitimacy: Chinese Government Inspections and Public Approval of Village Leadership," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-20, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:6:p:1975-:d:152126
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/6/1975/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/6/1975/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gerschewski, Johannes, 2013. "The three pillars of stability: legitimation, repression, and co-optation in autocratic regimes," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 20(1), pages 13-38.
    2. Cai, Yongshun, 2008. "Power Structure and Regime Resilience: Contentious Politics in China," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 38(3), pages 411-432, July.
    3. Wang, Shuna & Yao, Yang, 2007. "Grassroots Democracy and Local Governance: Evidence from Rural China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(10), pages 1635-1649, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jinrui Xi & Feng Wen, 2019. "Sustainable Rural Governance: How Rural Elections in China Lead to Long-Term Social Stability?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(22), pages 1-13, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. He, Quqiong & Pan, Ying & Sarangi, Sudipta, 2018. "Lineage-based heterogeneity and cooperative behavior in rural China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 248-269.
    2. Xu, Xiaoliang & Xu, Xuefen & Chen, Qian & Che, Ying, 2015. "The impact on regional “resource curse” by coal resource tax reform in China—A dynamic CGE appraisal," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 277-289.
    3. van der Kamp, Denise & Lorentzen, Peter & Mattingly, Daniel, 2017. "Racing to the Bottom or to the Top? Decentralization, Revenue Pressures, and Governance Reform in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 164-176.
    4. Li Han, 2014. "Are elections in autocracies a curse for incumbents? Evidence from Chinese villages," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 158(1), pages 221-242, January.
    5. Wischermann, Jörg & Bunk, Bettina & Köllner, Patrick & Lorch, Jasmin, 2016. "Do Associations Support Authoritarian Rule? Tentative Answers from Algeria, Mozambique, and Vietnam," GIGA Working Papers 295, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    6. Emmanuelle Auriol & Jean-Philippe Platteau & Thierry Verdier, 2023. "The Quran and the Sword," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 21(5), pages 1772-1820.
    7. Cuicui Xiao & Jingbo Zhou & Xingxing Shen & Jonathan Cullen & Susie Dobson & Fanran Meng & Xiaoxia Wang, 2022. "Rural Living Environment Governance: A Survey and Comparison between Two Villages in Henan Province of China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-18, October.
    8. Zhang, Jing & Gan, Li & Xu, Lixin Colin & Yao, Yang, 2014. "Health shocks, village elections, and household income: Evidence from rural China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 155-168.
    9. Maria‐Louise Clausen, 2020. "Decentralization as a strategy of regime maintenance: The case of Yemen," Public Administration & Development, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 40(2), pages 119-128, May.
    10. Gu, Hongyan, 2016. "NIMBYism in China: Issues and prospects of public participation in facility siting," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 527-534.
    11. Li, Shi & Vendryes, Thomas, 2018. "Real estate activity, democracy and land rights in rural China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 54-79.
    12. Fenja Søndergaard Møller, 2019. "Blue blood or true blood: Why are levels of intrastate armed conflict so low in Middle Eastern monarchies?," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 36(5), pages 517-544, September.
    13. Josua, Maria, 2022. "Justifications of repression in autocracies: An empirical analysis of the Maghreb, 2000-2010," GIGA Working Papers 331, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    14. Ryan H Murphy, 2020. "Does democracy die in recessions? A descriptive analysis of aggregate demand shortfalls and regime transition," Economic Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(1), pages 63-76, February.
    15. Vakhtang Putkaradze, 2023. "The Dictator Dilemma: The Distortion of Information Flow in Autocratic Regimes and Its Consequences," Papers 2310.01666, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2024.
    16. Caner Bakir, 2023. "The vicious circle of policy advisory systems and knowledge regimes in consolidated authoritarian regimes," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 42(3), pages 419-439.
    17. Chen Li & Mark Yaolin Wang & Jennifer Day, 2021. "Reconfiguration of state–society relations: The making of uncompromising nail households in urban housing demolition and relocation in Dalian, China," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(8), pages 1581-1597, June.
    18. Andreas Lichter & Max Löffler & Sebastian Siegloch, 2021. "The Long-Term Costs of Government Surveillance: Insights from Stasi Spying in East Germany," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 19(2), pages 741-789.
    19. Sjahrir, Bambang Suharnoko & Kis-Katos, Krisztina & Schulze, Günther G., 2014. "Administrative Overspending in Indonesian Districts: The Role of Local Politics," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 166-183.
    20. Kailitz, Steffen & Tanneberg, Dag, 2015. "Legitimation, Kooptation, Repression und das Überleben von Autokratien „im Umfeld autokratischer Wahlen". Eine Replik auf den Beitrag von Hans Lueders und Aurel Croissant," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 9(1/2), pages 73-82.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:6:p:1975-:d:152126. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.