Mechanism of Government Control

This chapter uses quantitative data to explore why and when government control interferes with PP. By using data from 43 cities (65 cases with 1507 total participants) regarding PP held from October 2014 to October 2016, it conducts a linear regression to test the relationship between the extent of government control and predictor variables including political instability, collective activity, unemployment rate, economic condition, and population. The results show that the extent of political instability has a statistically significant impact on the government’s control in PP. This result supports the analysis of Chinese deliberative democracy in the previous chapter, which recognizes that it is functionally driven to alleviate conflicts and ensure social stability.