Disaster, Security, and Governance

Disaster, Security, and Governance

MAGG Spring 2014Bin Xu

Assistant ProfessorFlorida International University

OK, this is hilarious…

• http://www.hulu.com/watch/610744?playlist_id=1031&asset_scope=tv

Civil Society

• Public sphere

• Associational sphere

Kobe Earthquake (1995)

• January 17, 1995• 7.2 on the Richter

scale• 6,434 killed• Damages

Shimin Sakai (Civil Society)

• Three meanings of shimin sakai:1. The modern society independent from the state2. A socialist society3. Voluntary and non-profit organizations• Terminology1. Non-governmental organizations: overseas

NGOs2. Non-profit organizations:

Shimin Sakai (Civil Society)

• Statism: many emerged from the state instead of the product of grassroots citizen pressures; the state’s suspicion about large, independent associations; patron-client relationship between the state and quasi-civil associations

Civil Society Response After the Earthquake

• Local NGO coalition in Kobe• Sheer scale of volunteerism: 1.5 million

volunteers• Coordinating problem; the government’s

suspicion• New NGOs emerged from the

earthquake response; existing ones adapted to the new challenges

• The Kobe Action Plan

Turkey

• Civil society before the 1999 earthquake1. A weak civil society2. Legal restrictions: no organizations

can be based upon regional, ethnic, religious, or class identity; no public association should pursue political goals until 1995 amendments

3. The military’s intervention

Turkey

• 1999 Marmara earthquake

• Death toll: 17,000• The state under

criticisms

Turkey

• Civil society’s volunteering: The Search and Rescue Association (AKUT)

• The state’s restrictions and condemnation

• The civil society fought back: manifesto (09/01/1999) and sit-in

• The state’s limited concession but the control remains strong

The 2008 Sichuan Earthquake

Chinese Civil Society before the Earthquake

• Rapid development• The state’s restriction on registration• The state’s differential methods of dealing

with NGOs:1. No political organizations2. Restrictions on grassroots organizations3. GONGOs (Government-Organized Non-

governmental Organizations)

Questions

• What particular features of the Sichuan earthquake made civil-society participation possible?

• Under what structural and situational conditions do the authoritarian state and civil society cooperate and is civil society consequently able to develop?

Why are the questions important?

• The literature on Chinese civil society does not adequately address situation (temporal variation): How does the civil society’s interaction with the state vary across situations?

• What kind of crises can facilitate cooperation? What are the general features of such crises?

Consensus Crisis

• The Sichuan earthquake is a case of “consensus crisis,” a favorable situation for civil society’s large-scale participation in public actions and its subsequent development.

Consensus Crisis: Characteristics

• The state’s administrative ability is challenged.

• A substantive need for civil society’s service and assistance.

• A general agreement on goals and priorities.

• The state has a strong desire to construct a morally respectable image.

The Sichuan earthquake as a consensus crisis

• The Chinese state’s administrative capacity was challenged

• scale • Immediate and urgent need

The Sichuan earthquake as a consensus crisis

• Need for civil society’s service• The inadequate and overwhelmed

GONGOs• An opening in the political opportunity

structure for civil society’s participation.• The need was reinforced by official

discourse of moral altruism

The Sichuan earthquake as a consensus crisis

• A general consensus on goals and priorities

• The state’s “moralized performance legitimacy”

• The state’s structural incentives to mobilize every possible resources to respond to the challenge

The Sichuan earthquake as a consensus crisis

• Constructing a moral image in the Olympic year

• The state’s moral image crisis in the Olympic year

Impacts of consensus crisis

• Two opinions about the Sichuan earthquake participation: birth year of the Chinese civil society; short-term euphoria

• Some positive changes: development of service-oriented organizations

• The positive impacts were constrained by long-term features of the political opportunity structure

Conclusion

• How does the concept “consensus crisis” contribute to the debates about Chinese civil society?

• The Neo-Tocquevillian approach• Corporatism• Stronger support to the third approach

—a more dynamic and contingent state-society relationship