3 + 1 + 1 = 1: Disempowerment in Multi-Ethnic Autonomous Counties - The Case of Longsheng

In: Issues & studies: a social science quarterly on China, Taiwan, and East Asian affairs, Band 40, Heft 1, S. 203-223

Abstract

This paper examines the meaning of Chinese multiethnic autonomy in Longsheng County, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. In the People's Republic of China, ethnic policy is aimed at national unity, but the construction of multiethnicity conflicts with the purpose of autonomy because this construction strips ethnicity of its ability to mobilize people into action. Local cadres cannot act meaningfully under the abstract concept of multiethnicity to which everyone belongs administratively but not ethnically; ie, multiethnicity cannot effectively represent any specific ethnicity nor does it serve as an incentive for cadres to develop agencies for social change. One result is the widespread sens of "no way out" of the institutional rigidity caused by the top-down style of policy making that the author detected among interviewees at all social & political levels. Adapted from the source document.