Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T04:22:32.309Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Natural Resources, Local Governance and Social Instability: A Comparison of Two Counties in China*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2013

Jing Vivian Zhan*
Affiliation:
The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Email: [email protected].

Abstract

This article compares two neighbouring underdeveloped counties in south-west China. They share many similarities in economic, political and demographic structures, but experience divergent levels of social instability. The comparison suggests that, under China's political system and cadre incentive structure, the endowment of mineral resources in one county, and the lack thereof in the other, significantly influences the modes of economic development and local governance in these two counties, and thus contributes to their different levels of social instability.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

The author acknowledges the financial support of the South China Programme of the Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies. She is grateful for the help of the informants in Guizhou and for the excellent research assistance provided by Jiang Lu and Duan Haiyan. The author also wishes to thank Edward Friedman, Lianjiang Li, Richard Baum, two anonymous referees, the editors of The China Quarterly, and the audience at the 2010 American Political Science Association Annual Meeting for their valuable comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this article. All errors remain the author's own.

References

Auty, Richard M. 1993. Sustaining Development in Mineral Economies: The Resource Curse Thesis. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Ding, Buzhi. 2008. “Weng'an: bu'an de xiancheng” (Weng'an: an uneasy county town), Nanfang zhoumo, 10 July, http://www.infzm.com/content/14365/. Accessed 24 June 2010.Google Scholar
Emergency Management Office of Guizhou Provincial Government. 2009. “Yuqing yingji guanli gongzuo kuaisu jiankang fazhan” (Rapid and healthy development of emergency management in Yuqing), Guizhousheng xingzheng guanli xuehui, http://www.gzxzglxh.org/show.asp?id=3353&bid=38. Accessed 24 June 2010.Google Scholar
Chen, Gang. 2008. “Yuqing jingyan diaocha” (Investigation of Yuqing's experiences), Fazhi shenghuo, 27 November, http://www.fzshb.cn/News/200811/1070_2.html. Accessed 24 June 2009.Google Scholar
Collier, Paul. 2003. “The market for civil war.” Foreign Policy 136 (May/June), 3845.Google Scholar
Collier, Paul, and Hoeffler, Anke. 1998. “On economic causes of civil war.” Oxford Economic Papers 50(4), 563573.Google Scholar
Collier, Paul, and Hoeffler, Anke. 2005. “Resource rents, governance, and conflict.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 49(4), 625633.Google Scholar
Corden, W. Max, and Neary, J. Peter. 1982. “Booming sector and de-industrialisation in a small open economy.” The Economic Journal 92(368) (December), 825848.Google Scholar
de Soysa, Indrea. 2002. “Paradise is a bazaar? Greed, creed, and governance in civil war, 1989–99.” Journal of Peace Research 39(4), 395416.Google Scholar
Dunning, Thad. 2005. “Resource dependence, economic performance, and political stability.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 49(4), 451482.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Englebert, Pierre, and Ron, James. 2004. “Primary commodities and war: Congo-Brazzaville's ambivalent resource curse.” Comparative Politics 37(1), 6181.Google Scholar
Fearon, James D. 2005. “Primary commodity exports and civil war.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 49(4), 483507.Google Scholar
Fearon, James D., and Laitin, David. 2003. “Ethnicity, insurgency, and civil war.” American Political Science Review 97(1), 7590.Google Scholar
Guizhou Bureau of Statistics (ed). Guizhou sheng tongji nianjian 2001–2009 (Guizhou Statistical Yearbook 2001–2009). Beijing: China Statistics Press.Google Scholar
Humphreys, Macartan. 2005. “Natural resources, conflict, and conflict resolution.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 49(4), 508537.Google Scholar
Karl, Terry Lynn. 1997. The Paradox of Plenty: Oil Booms and Petro-States. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klandermans, Bert. 1997. The Social Psychology of Protest. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Klare, Michael T. 2001. Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict. New York: Metropolitan Books.Google Scholar
Li, Hongbin, and Zhou, Li-An. 2005. “Political turnover and economic performance: the incentive role of personnel control in China.” Journal of Public Economics 89, 1743–762.Google Scholar
Liu, Zifu. 2009. Xin qunti shijian guan: Guizhou Weng'an 6.28 shijian de qishi (New Perspective on Collective Incidents: Lessons from the 28 June Incident of Weng'an in Guizhou). Beijing: Xinhua.Google Scholar
Lujala, Paivi, Gleditsch, Nils Petter and Gilmore, Elisabeth. 2005. “A diamond curse? Civil war and a lootable resource.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 49(4), 538562.Google Scholar
McAdam, Doug, McCarthy, John D. and Zald, Mayer. 1996. “Introduction: opportunities, mobilizing structures, and framing: toward a synthetic comparative perspective on social movements.” In McAdam, Doug, McCarthy, John D. and Zald, Mayer (eds.), Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 120.Google Scholar
O'Brien, Kevin, and Li, Lianjiang. 1999. “Selective policy implementation in rural China.” Comparative Politics 31(2), 167186.Google Scholar
Ross, Michael L. 2001. “Does oil hinder democracy?World Politics 53(3), 325361.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ross, Michael L. 2004. “How do natural resources influence civil war? Evidence from thirteen cases.” International Organizations 58, 3567.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sachs, Jeffrey D., and Warner, Andrew M.. 1995. “Natural resource abundance and economic growth.” NBER Working Paper 5398.Google Scholar
Smith, Benjamin. 2004. “Oil wealth and regime survival in the developing world, 1960–1999.” American Journal of Political Science 48(2), 232246.Google Scholar
Snyder, Richard, and Bhavnani, Ravi. 2005. “Diamonds, blood, and taxes: a revenue-centered framework for explaining political order.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 49(4), 563597.Google Scholar
Switzer, Jason. 2001. Armed Conflict and Natural Resources: The Case of the Minerals Sector. London: International Institute for Environment and Development.Google Scholar
Wang, Weibo. 2008. “Weng'an guanyuan fangkai xinwen baodao yingdui xinren weiji” (Weng'an county officials opened media reports in response to trust crisis), Zhongguo xinwen zhoukan, 9 July, http://www.360doc.com/content/09/0102/02/67117_2243036.shtml. Accessed 21 June 2010.Google Scholar
Wang, Xiao. 2008. “Weng'an guanchang de jiushu” (The redemption of officialdom in Weng'an), Liaowang dongfang zhoukan, 26 November.Google Scholar
Wei, Yiping. 2008. “Weng'an shijian diaocha: jingfang yu heibang guanxi miqie cheng gongkai de mimi” (Investigation of the Weng'an incident: close ties between police and gangs are open secret), Sanlian shenghuo zhoukan, 10 July.Google Scholar
Weng'an Bureau of Finance. 2009. “Weng'an xian caizheng yu juesuan baogao (2007–2008 nian)” (Weng'an fiscal budget and final account report 2007–2008).Google Scholar
Weng'an Bureau of Statistics. 2009. “2008 nian Weng'an guoming jingji he shehui fazhan tongji gongbao” (2008 Weng'an economic and social development statistics report), http://www.wengan.gov.cn/wagk/View.asp?id=847. Accessed 18 July 2010.Google Scholar
Weng'an County Government. 2010. “Kuangchan ziyuan” (Mineral resources), http://www.gz.xinhuanet.com/zfpd/qnz/wa/contents/qs03.htm. Accessed 10 July 2010.Google Scholar
Whiting, Susan H. 2001. Power and Wealth in Rural China: The Political Economy of Institutional Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Yu, Jianrong. 2009. “Shehui xiefen shijian zhong qunti xinli yanjiu – dui Weng'an shijian fasheng jizhi de yizhong jieshi” (Study of group psychology in grievance-venting social incidents – a causal explanation of the Weng'an incident). Beijing xingzheng xueyuan xuebao 1, 15.Google Scholar
Yuqing County Government. 2008. “Yuqing gaikuang” (The general situation of Yuqing), http://www.yuqing.gov.cn/col/col147/index.html. Accessed 10 July 2010.Google Scholar
Yuqing Gazetteer Editing Office (ed). 2009. Yuqing xianzhi 1998–2005 (Yuqing Gazetteer 1998–2005). Beijing: Gazetteer Publishing House.Google Scholar
Zhao, Peng, Furong, Zhou and Wenguo, Liu. 2008. “Cong Weng'an shijian zhong women fansi shenme” (Reflections from the Weng'an incident). Ban yue tan 14, 4345.Google Scholar
Zhou, Li'An. 2008. Zhuanxingzhong de difang zhengfu: guanyuan jili yu zhili (Local Government in Transition: the Incentive of Government Officials and Governance). Shanghai: Shanghai People's Publishing House.Google Scholar