CQ — pp. 1-20 2026-09-01 Original The Origins of Land Finance: Local Resistance and Top-Down Imposition
Saul Kriger Wilson
Abstract
Abstract Land sales have been a significant source of revenue for Chinese local governments since the early 2000s. Contrary to popular belief, local governments did not turn to land finance to make up for lost tax revenues after the 1994 tax sharing reform. Rather, both before and after 1994, corrupt land sales were widespread, as officials sold land far below market prices in return for bribes. Even as the fiscal incentives for local governments to adopt land finance increased in the 1990s, state agents continued acting on their own personal interests rather than the institutional interests of local governments. Local governments only began to sell land at higher, market prices when an anti-corruption campaign launched by the central government made doing so a political imperative in the early 2000s. Local governments were much more responsive to political imperatives than to fiscal incentives.
CQ — pp. 1-17 2026-09-01 Original Feminized Revival: Han Chinese Dress, Gender and Cultural Nationalism in Contemporary China
Fuyun Wei
Abstract
Abstract Women hold disproportionate authority in China’s contemporary Hanfu revival, where Han-ness operates through implicit cultural codes rather than explicit ethnic claims. Recent scholarship highlights how Han-ness circulates as a moral, etiquette-centred grammar of “proper culture.” Drawing on 18 months of ethnography across six sites in China, this article shows how gender mediates that grammar and shapes the performances of Han-ness. Women, as arbiters of taste and propriety, enact an assertive banal nationalism through aesthetic and organizational labour. Men, marginal within the field, perform defensive overt nationalism through didactic historical narratives and moralized claims to legitimacy. To explain this pattern of identity formation and boundary making, I advance the notion of gendered everyday nationhood. The article contributes to scholarship on nationalism by showing how embodied practices sustain national belonging, and how mundane evaluation and boundary policing reproduce nationhood in everyday life.
GOV 39/4 2026-08-31
Original Why Some Critical Junctures Lead Nowhere: Exploring Dynamic and Static Policy Paths
Katrine Skagen
Abstract
ABSTRACT Some critical junctures fail to cause significant change in practice. Inspired by historical institutionalism, this article develops the concept of dynamic and static policy paths to explain why some critical junctures do not lead to change, while others do. Combining insights from policy process literature and policy implementation, it conceptualizes critical junctures through four elements: framing, targets, instruments, and actors/institutions. Based on two case studies, the article argues that the importance of framing and targets has been overexaggerated, and that a dynamic path will not occur unless there is also a significant change in instruments and actors/institutions. In Denmark, a climate policy agreement created a new policy direction for agriculture in which climate policy is a key component. In Norway, a climate policy agreement did not change the trajectory of sectoral policy and climate policy development has remained stagnant. Thus, differences in the critical junctures led to different policy paths.
CQ — pp. 1-18 2026-08-28 Original Subversive Amplification: Online Dissent and the Limits of Information Control in China
Christian Göbel
Abstract
Abstract Intensified information control severely constrains digital contention in China, yet online mass events occasionally occur. Using a dataset of 274,721 Weibo messages, this study examines mobilization, coordination and grievance articulation during a two-day episode of online dissent in the aftermath of the 2022 Urumqi residential building fire, which preceded the White Paper protests. It argues that users were activated by public communication failures that transformed manifold grievances into outrage, and that the associated hashtags provided anchors to which criticism could be attached. In a process this study terms “subversive amplification,” concentrated engagement amplified the hashtags’ visibility, and with it the critical content attached to them. However, absent the unifying function of opinion leaders, grievance articulation remained fragmented and did not converge on unified demands. The case illustrates the inherent vulnerabilities of information control but also the conditions and limits of their exploitation.
PSJ 54/3 2026-08-28
Original Conditional Autonomy, Discursive Gatekeeping, and Patterns of Action: How Experts Influence Policy in China's One‐Party System
JCC — pp. 1-17 2026-08-27 Original Forgiving the Government: The Waning Effect of Citizen Grievances in China
Jinfeng Wu, Yongshun Cai
Abstract
Public grievances do not automatically translate into collective or even individual resistance, but pent-up grievances threaten governments because they may trigger regime-challenging actions when opportunities arise. This study examines to what extent public grievances against state authorities may become pent up. Using a longitudinal survey in China, this article finds that public grievances against local state authorities reduce citizens’ trust in the political system, but citizen grievances may not become pent up. Instead, these grievances tend to be individualized in the sense that they neither last for a long time nor diffuse in society. Individualized grievances reduce political pressure because they do not constitute threats to social stability. However, whether these grievances will last if citizens re-encounter similar conflicts warrants further research.
AJPS — 2026-08-20
Original A theory of political divergence and gradual institutional change
Clair Yang
Abstract
Abstract Why do some societies succeed in breaking away from historical traditions while others remain trapped? This paper proposes a formal theory to investigate the interaction between short‐run and long‐run political dynamics, highlighting a co‐evolution of political institutions and social structures. A society consists of various social groups, such as the rulers, the elites, and the commoners. Short‐run strategic considerations give rise to different coalitions among these groups, which determine not only political regimes but also redistribution policies. In the long run, these policies shape the accumulation of wealth and power, where small initial differences can lead to divergent paths of development. Finally, the paper examines three historical case studies on medieval Europe, imperial China, and the medieval Muslim world to illustrate potential pathways of long‐run political development.
PAR — 2026-08-19
Original Democratic Backsliding and Governance Outcomes: Measuring Administrative and Political Channels of Decline
David Ibañez, Ricardo A. Bello‐Gómez
AJPS — 2026-08-18
Original Captured participatory institutions: Theory and evidence from Venezuela's Consejos Comunales
Jared Abbott, Jose Morales‐Arilla
PNAS 123/34 pp. e2611580123-e2611580123 2026-08-17 Original 4000-year-old painted plaque from Southeast Indonesia reveals Austronesian Painting Tradition preceded Neolithic pottery
Sue O’Connor, Shimona Kealy, Hendri Asyhari Fajrian Kaharudin, Emily Nutman, Lucas Wattimena, Muhammad Lanang Adiyatma, Devi Mustika Sari, Yuni Suniarti, Mahirta Mahirta, Marlon N. R. Ririmasse, Sofía Samper Carro, Ceri Shipton