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The associational revolution that began in the early 1990s in China introduced the idea of a relatively autonomous civil society, departing from traditional forms of social organizations such as kinship groups and corporatist federations.1In this article, I analyse the state-civil society relationships that developed over these last two decades, interwoven with examples from Beijing to explore the motivations prompting government officials to allow the expansion of civil society. I use examples from Beijing due to its status as both the capital of China and a distinct city-province, which means that local officials are exposed to national and international pressures in ways not experienced by cadres in other provinces; it thus serves as both a mirror and microcosm of national political trends. I argue that local officials' ideas about civil society play a causal role in determining the evolving relationship between the local state and groups: specifically, that both "strategic" ideas, such as the material benefits and disadvantages of group activity, and "modular" ideas, derived from successful international and domestic state-society models, influence the current development of a "consultative authoritarianism" model in Beijing.2
Through fieldwork in Beijing and over one hundred interviews in four other provinces beginning in 2006, I find that the "strategic" idea of civil society assistance with the delivery of public goods and the "modular" idea of a "small state-big society" derived from Western regulatory states together have created positive feedback for the idea of local government collaboration with civil society groups. As I explore in the case study of Shining Stone (Canyu shi ç¿...), decentralization of public welfare to the local government and the linkage of promotion to the delivery of these goods generated a strategic idea of civil society development benefiting the career advancement of local cadres. Additionally, this strategic idea was supported by the regulatory state model, such as seen in the US, of a large public welfare role for social groups and a regulatory role for the local state.3
However, during the same period competing "strategic" and "modular" ideas undermined this cooperative relationship and advocated more of a confrontational relationship. The "strategic" idea of civil society challenging social stability - the maintenance of which is a vital...