Social capital and power: Entrepreneurial elite and the state in contemporary China

Unlike the idea of civil society, the concept of social capital has yet to be widely used in the field of Chinese studies. Based on a case study of entrepreneurial organizations in Suzhou, this paper illustrates the unique and complex process of social capital formation in reform-era China among the newly emergent Chinese business elite. Entrepreneurs use social capital to influence state policymaking and to forge a relationship between entrepreneurial organizations and the state that involves a dynamic process of power negotiation. The findings shed some light on how to revise thinking about civil society and the state in contemporary China.     

Building institutional rules and procedures: Village election in China

Chinese elections for village leaders have been conducted since 1988, but processes by which elections have been conducted leave room for improvement. This study shows that despite progress made in Chinese village election laws, there exists considerable variation in rules and procedures stemming from vagueness in the laws and in various implementation methods. These issues are addressed and ways are proposed to improve village elections. In particular, an argument is made in favor of standardization and synchronization of village election rules and procedures.     

Embedded Government Control and Nonprofit Revenue Growth

This research combines insights from resource dependence and institutional theories to examine the growth of Chinese nonprofit revenues. The authors propose the concept of embedded government control (EGC) to capture the complexity of the government–nonprofit relationship along two dimensions: government regulation of nonprofits’ public fund‐raising qualifications and the political embeddedness of nonprofits with the government. Using a data set of 2,159 Chinese philanthropic foundations for the period 2005–12, the authors test hypotheses about the implications of EGC for nonprofit revenues in China following two major external shocks: the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008 and the Guo Meimei scandal in 2011. The empirical analysis shows that EGC can help philanthropic foundations obtain more government subsidies, donations, and market revenues. However, external shocks may either strengthen or weaken the enabling role of EGC in helping foundations acquire relatively more donations.     

‘No‐one likes us; we don't care’: ‘Dissident’ Irish Republicans and Mandates

The episodic dissident republican activity evident in Northern Ireland since the Good Friday Agreement has been accompanied by regular assertions from the police, politicians and commentators that dissidents have no backing. This article examines the historic importance of mandates and support for previous and contemporary republican armed campaigns. It explores whether violent republicans have ever enjoyed widespread support in Ireland and assesses the extent to which a lack of backing has precluded violent campaigns. The piece analyses the evidence regarding the lack of sympathy for current dissident violence, assessing the degree to which armed republicanism has reached a new level of isolation.