Authoritarian Legality in China: Law, Workers, and the State

by Mary E. Gallagher

Can authoritarian regimes use democratic institutions to strengthen and solidify their rule? The Chinese government has legislated some of the most protective workplace laws in the world and opened up the judicial system to adjudicate workplace conflict, emboldening China's workers to use these laws. This book examines these patterns of legal mobilization, showing which workers are likely to avail themselves of these new protections and find them effective. Gallagher finds that workers with high levels of education are far more likely to claim these new rights and be satisfied with the results. However, many others, left disappointed with the large gap between law on the books and law in reality, reject the courtroom for the streets. Using workers' narratives, surveys, and case studies of protests, Gallagher argues that China's half-hearted attempt at rule of law construction undermines the stability of authoritarian rule. New workplace rights fuel workers' rising expectations, but a dysfunctional legal system drives many workers to more extreme options, including strikes, demonstrations and violence.

Genres: China, Law

264 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 7, 2017

Reviews

[Melissa Gayton · Rating 5 out of 5]

The quality of both the research that went into writing this book as well as the book itself is very high. Gallagher does an excellent job of connecting labor laws and how they work on the ground to broader motivations and goals of the Chinese Communist Party and authoritarian states in general. Chinese labor law is both a unique field and highly connected to other developments within China, which makes this book interesting for anyone interested in China or authoritarianism and rule of law. Finally, Gallagher's writing style is a pleasure to read. While some familiarity with China studies would be helpful in navigating this book, she clearly defines any of the specialized terms or jargon used and lays out her arguments unambiguously.

[Alisha · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is essentially a book about how authoritarian legality plays out when there are many persistent worker disputes. It talks about how an increase in citizen awareness of laws leads to an increase in disputes, mediations, etc. There are many democratic elements embedded in these practices, laws, institutions, etc., but this is in form, not function. In the last section on the "limits" of authoritarian legality, she talks about how the stability preservation system is inefficient at articulating interests and tends to encourage 'troublemaking' petitioning tactics. Because of the highly centralized power structure and state failure to institutionalize, only leaders can really respond to these types of popular claims. This is a wonderful book for anyone interested in matters related to law, power and the state, disputes, ADR, mediation, or extralegal tactics for managing disputes. It makes an important contribution to the literature on a variety of topics including labor, globalization, and authoritarian legality.