A Middle Class Without Democracy: Economic Growth and the Prospects for Democratization in China
"Jie Chen is correct that no topic is more central for the future of US-China relations than understanding the political values and behaviors of the rising generation of college educated professionals and managers. Using extensive survey and interview data from three of China's most important cities, Chen successfully explains the challenges and consequences of engaging this group of 'contingent democratic supporters' into the next phase of China's economic and political transformations." -Deborah Davis, Yale University"This arresting study provides a firm analytical foundation for assessing the chances of leadership by China's emergent middle class in any coming regime shift toward democratization.  Chen ingeniously draws on his own probing surveys in three major Chinese cities, and, on the basis of telling distinctions that he establishes between the middle and the lower classes and between state-employed and non-state-employed middle class segments, he is able to answer crucial queries about the circumstances under which, and the likely possibilities for, a critical shift in the stance of this pivotal group in the near term. Everything hinges on the nature of the class's current linkage with and stance toward the state and factors that might alter that. A must-read for anyone concerned about China's political future." -Dorothy Solinger, University of California, Irvine"We learn from this book not just why China's middle class supports the communist regime but also how this could change if its prospects worsen or its ties to the state weaken. This will be mandatory reading in Beijing, and should be elsewhere." - Bruce Gilley, Mark O. Hatfield School of Government, Portland State University and author of China's Democratic Future: How It Will Happen and Where It Will Lead"Does China's growing middle class represent a catalyst for democracy?  Based on probability sampling of three cities and extensive field research, Jie Chen shows us why the expectations of modernization theory are not borne out by China's experience." -Kellee S. Tsai, Professor of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University and author of Capitalism without Democracy:  The Private Sector in Contemporary China