Who protests in China: Mobilizing workers across China’s diverse urban labor force

Abstract

ABSTRACT Since 1990, China has experienced thousands of local protests over issues of land and labor rights. Grievance based theories identify incentives to protest among employees in township and village enterprises (TVEs), privately owned enterprises (POEs), and state owned-enterprises (SOEs). Resource mobilization theory explains how variations in labor-management relations across these categories affect their capacity to mobilize for protest. We use survey data from the 2010 Chinese General Social Survey to estimate the determinants of individual participation in protests. We find that TVE and POE employees are more likely than SOE employees to participate in protests. POE workers are motivated by issues of salary while all three categories of workers are motivated by unfair treatment by officials. The findings support the claim that variations in the capacity to mobilize are more relevant to protest participation than are grievances. Grievances are widespread across all categories; the capacity to mobilize is not.