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Print Price: $81.00

Format:
Hardback
192 pp.
6.125" x 9.25"

ISBN-13:
9780190698089

Publication date:
September 2018

Imprint: OUP US

Authoritarian Containment

Public Security Bureaus and Protestant House Churches in Urban China

Marie-Eve Reny

In Authoritarian Containment, Marie-Eve Reny examines why local public security bureaus tolerate unregistered Protestant churches in urban China - an officially atheist country where religious practice is controlled by the state - when the central government considers them illegal. She argues that local states tolerate these churches to contain the underground practice of Protestantism. Containment necessitates a bargain between informal religious organizations and the state. Even though they are not regulated, unregistered churches are allowed to operate conditionally, so long as church leaders keep a low profile, share information as needed with local authorities, and agree that the state will not grant them formal institutional recognition.

Reny also considers authoritarian regimes other than China that employ a similar strategy to control informal religious communities. She focuses on two Middle East cases-President Sadat's control of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1970s Egypt and the Jordanian monarchy's containment of jihadi Salafists after 2006. By reducing the incentives for local religious leaders to politicize and inducing such leaders to willingly provide inside information, governments can avoid the heavy hand of coercion and forceful co-optation.

Based on extensive fieldwork, Authoritarian Containment offers insight into the way authoritarian regimes neutralize underground religious leaders and discourage opposition to the state.

Readership : Social scientists with interest in comparative authoritarianism, China, and the Middle East; graduate level students studying contemporary China or authoritarian regimes.

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Explaining Authoritarian Containment
Informal Protestantism in China and Local Government Toleration
Why Public Security Bureaus Contain Protestant House Churches
Everyday Forms of Containment
Containment and Authoritarian Regime Resilience
Containment across Authoritarian Landscapes
Conclusion
Afterword
Bibliography

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Marie-Eve Reny is Assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at Université de Montréal since June 2013. Her work primarily centers on the comparative study of authoritarian regimes, with a special interest for China.

Making Sense in the Social Sciences - Margot Northey, Lorne Tepperman and Patrizia Albanese
Religion in China - Fenggang Yang
Politics in China - Edited by William A. Joseph
The Dictator's Dilemma - Bruce Dickson
The China Reader - Edited by David Shambaugh

Special Features

Provides a complex and nuanced picture of unregistered religious leaders' dealings with local state actors.
Focuses on two Middle East cases: President Sadat's containment strategy toward the Muslim Brotherhood in 1970s Egypt and the Mukhabarat's containment of jihadi Salafists in a post-Zarqawi period.
Demonstrates how authoritarian regimes have employed similar strategies to control the activities of informal religious organizations.