Remaking Bonds: Adaptive Party Linkage-building in Contemporary China

Abstract

The legitimacy and vitality of all political regimes require the presence of linkages between rulers and their citizens. Current scholarship has identified different modes of political linkages and focused mainly on liberal-democratic countries, neglecting studies of non-Western regimes which also construct dynamic linkages to remain responsive to citizen demands and mobilise political support. This article addresses the critical question of why and how parties that do not have to compete for power establish linkages with their citizens. China presents a crucial case in this inquiry, since the Communist Party of China (CPC) strategically diversifies and creatively upgrades linkage relationships with its citizens beyond Western-style competitive elections. With first-hand data collected from 11 fieldwork sites across eastern, middle and western China, this article examines the linkage strategies, mechanisms and tactics the CPC has employed to respond to an increasingly complex society and to serve multiple purposes. This research attempts to offer a new conceptual framework for understanding party regime resilience, provide insights into the general theory of party linkage, and to encourage comparative studies of party linkage across different regime types.