Qiao Shitong (University of Hong Kong)

Can a liberal commons emerge in an authoritarian regime? Why have 94% of residential neighborhoods in Shanghai established homeowners’ associations but only 41% in Shenzhen and 12% in Beijing? Based on an in-depth investigation of the ongoing self-governance movement of hundreds of millions of homeowners in urban China this research explains the divergence of neighborhood democratization in three Chinese megacities (Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen) and defines conditions for successful self-governance to emerge from authoritarian China. It is posited in this paper that the authoritarian commons features multiple equilibria, depending on the state capacity and the risk posed by the self-governance movement. A highly capable state which faces an intermediate degree of risk could make institutional reforms to accommodate the grassroots democracy.