比较政治

JCC — pp. 1-17 2026-07-24 Original When the Mass Line Encounters the Ground: Public-Oriented Accountability and Frontline Coping in China Huan He Abstract While the consolidation of state control in China is well-documented, less attention has been given to the reinforcement of public-oriented accountability, which emphasizes citizen satisfaction with complaint resolution in government performance assessments. Drawing on statistical data and fieldwork interviews, this study finds that while public-oriented accountability can partially promote substantive government responsiveness by imposing institutional pressure on frontline officials, it also fosters a public perception of an omnipotent government and exacerbates the predicament of grassroots incapacity. This not only traps frontline bureaucrats in administrative burden caused by blame-avoidance strategies, but may also fuel frustration among mobilized citizens with heightened expectations. The findings reveal the institutional sources and constraints of government responsiveness and highlight the potential challenges of operationalizing the mass line to consolidate legitimacy.

CQ — pp. 1-17 2026-07-23 Original Individualization, Relationships and Collective Action Among Migrants in China: Evidence from Rent Strikes Mengfei Ning, Xiaohong Jin Abstract Abstract Based on a field study of the COVID-19 rent reduction actions of a group of self-employed migrants in Zhengzhou, China, this study examines how individualization shaped the relational networks of the migrants, which in turn dynamically influenced the trajectory and outcome of their collective action. The group’s collective action was shaped not by a single relationship but by an instrumental relational network woven from fragmented intra-group ties, fragile local connections, unstable market relations and arms-length government–migrant interactions. The “relational duality” framework proposed here reveals this network’s dual role in contention: shared experiences of external exclusion catalysed internal solidarity and short-term mobilization; however, the network’s inherent instrumentality and vulnerability rendered it highly susceptible to adversaries’ strategic activation of latent competitive boundaries through tactics like co-optation and relational repression, thus triggering a rapid dissolution of solidarity that resulted in the protest fragmenting. These findings enrich an understanding of the micro-dynamics of contentious politics in China and offer a fresh lens for analysing collective action among similar groups that undergo individualization.

JCC — pp. 1-17 2026-07-20 Original Memory in Motion: The Configuration of Korean War Memory in Chinese Popular Representations Xiaowen Cheng, Jinhong Li Abstract China’s Korean War memory moves in and out of view, but rarely returns unchanged. This article asks how Chinese popular representations of the Korean War vary as the foreign relationships embedded in the war shift. It develops a configurational account of wartime memory, emphasizing activation, selection, and mediation across state priorities, nationalist repertoires, and media institutions. Drawing on a near-comprehensive corpus of theatrically released Chinese Korean War films, alongside close readings of influential print and screen texts, it traces three periods: canonization, latency, and security revival. Chinese sacrifice and victory endure; the United States remains central, but negative portrayals of US soldiers become less common; solidarity with North Korea recedes; Soviet participation remains largely unmentioned; and China’s intervention is increasingly framed as national defense.

AJPS — 2026-07-19 Original Contesting repression in divided democracies: Can counternarratives reduce support for police violence? Yanilda María González, Natán Skigin

GOV 39/4 2026-07-16 Original Subnational Resilience During Crisis: How Brazilian Municipalities Responded to COVID‐19 and Public Health Budget Cuts

JCC — pp. 1-18 2026-07-16 Original Cultivated Memories and Selective Nationalism in China: Evidence on the United States and Russia Yu Liu, Tuo Chen Abstract Despite China’s similarly complex modern relationships with both the United States and Russia, contemporary Chinese public opinion is far more favorable toward Russia than toward the United States. Why? Combining observational analysis, survey experiments, and conventional regression, we argue that state regulation of collective memory about the two countries plays a key role in producing this selective nationalism. Using original data from two survey experiments in China, we show that exposure to more balanced historical information, rather than the one-sided narratives promoted by the state, reduces both anti-Americanism and pro-Russian sentiment. We also find that educational attainment, as a vehicle for political indoctrination, is associated with stronger anti-American and pro-Russian views. Our study highlights memory engineering as a powerful instrument of political misinformation.

APSR — pp. 1-21 2026-07-15 Original Rebel Victory and Authoritarian (Dis)Order KILLIAN CLARKE, ANNE MENG, JACK PAINE Abstract Many authoritarian regimes originating in violent rebellion are exceptionally durable. Yet others collapse quickly after their birth. We argue that the structure of the founding rebellion explains these divergent trajectories by shaping power-sharing dynamics in the new regime and the nature of conflict recurrence. Regimes founded by unified rebellions (single armed group) usually become highly durable autocracies because their members can credibly share power within the same armed organization. By contrast, regimes founded by fractured rebellions (multiple armed groups) often fail quickly because armed rivals must attempt to share power across their organizations, prompting defections and recurrent rebellions. Empirically, we support these arguments by analyzing originally compiled data on every regime founded by successful rebellion worldwide from 1900 to 2020. Neither alternative rebellion characteristics, like social revolution or leftist ideology, nor country-level factors can explain why rebel regimes follow divergent trajectories.

PSJ 54/3 2026-07-15 Original A Comprehensive Taxonomy of Rules for Nuanced Analysis of Governance Systems Diego Arahuetes‐de la Iglesia, Alicia Tenza‐Peral, Laura Ximena Estévez‐Moreno, Andrea Martín‐Suárez, Francisco Javier Lacosta‐García, Ismael Lare‐David, Irene Pérez‐Ibarra

GOV 39/3 2026-07-10 Original Institutional Backsliding Under Liberal Democratic Backsliding: Central Bank Independence Reversal in Türkiye Caner Bakir Abstract ABSTRACT Despite the importance of research strands in identifying the micro‐mechanisms underpinning illiberal governance and democratic backsliding under populist or patrimonial rule in both liberal and illiberal democracies, the implications of populist‐patrimonial interventions by strong political leaders aiming for institutional backsliding have not been studied in detail. Drawing on a within‐case temporal comparison of erosion of central bank independence in Turkiye under the prolonged rule of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, this article focuses on the backsliding of legal‐rational institutional logic (e.g., loyalty to legal and professional rules and practices such as impersonality, neutrality, professionalism, and meritocracy) that informs political leader and bureaucrat interactions and their replacement with patrimonial institutional logic (e.g., absolute personal loyalty to a leader). It argues that the disruptive (defensive) institutional work of populist‐patrimonial strongman (insiders) is most likely to be effective in achieving institutional backsliding (maintenance) in public administration when the political regime structure, its main institutions, and agential‐level factors motivate and empower his prolonged, consistent, and persistent disruptive (defensive) institutional work.

JCC — pp. 1-22 2026-07-09 Original Chinese State-Owned Enterprise Workers at the Margins: Evidence from a Sichuan Case Study Shan Huang Abstract This article examines workers’ changes in a Sichuan state-owned enterprise established during Third Front initiative. Taking qualitative research methods based on in-depth interviews and fieldwork, it demonstrates how SOE reforms reshaped workers’ capital resource and social status, transforming the formerly secure working class into wage-dependent labour through workers’ narratives on their work and life histories. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of capital and Marxist class analysis, the study tracks workers’ capital losses through welfare shrinkage, declining skill value, and work-unit network disintegration, explaining how these shifts represent changed labour relations, as institutional protection gave way to market control. The case points out widening divisions among workers, indicating a fragmented working class and a redefined class structure in post-reform China.