Social status and governmental trust : a study of civil society organizations in Guangzhou, China

Previously, two extreme points describe civil society organizers' intention to engage with the government. Western modernization theories suggest that all civil society organizations oppose the state; and State-dominant theories claim that all the civil society groups depend on the state and support the state. Based on my two months' fieldwork in Guangzhou City between May and July 2010, however, I find that some civil society organizations support the state while other groups oppose the state. Specifically, elite civil society organizations, which are established by people with mid or high social status, have more contacts with the government and show low trust in the government. On the other hand, non-elite civil society organizations, which are established by people with low social status, have fewer contacts with the government and show their willingness to engage with the government. This conclusion is valid in both the public good provision organizations and the advocacy groups. Four case studies of civil society groups in Guangzhou are used to illustrate the points above.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Political Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2010

Author dc:creator

• Li, Dian, S.M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Lily L. Tsai.

• Political Science.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/62469

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/62469