Righteous Revolutionaries: Morality, Mobilization, and Violence in the Making of the Chinese State

Righteous Revolutionaries examines the Chinese Communist Party's land reform campaign in the early 1950s, revealing how it used moral mobilization to create a moral boundary and mobilize violence against perceived threats to its authority. The book highlights the relevance of understanding violent mobilization and state authority in today's world, where states and politicians often weaponize moral emotions to foment intergroup conflict and violence.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 304 pages
Publication date: 07 September 2022
Publisher: The University of Michigan Press

Righteous Revolutionaries: How States Appeal to Popular Morality to Forge New Group Identities and Mobilize Violence Against Perceived Threats to Their Authority
Jeffrey A. Javed examines the Chinese Communist Party's mass mobilization of violence during its land reform campaign in the early 1950s, one of the most violent and successful state-building efforts in history. Using novel archival, documentary, and quantitative historical data, this book illustrates that China's land reform campaign was not just about economic redistribution but rather part of a larger, brutally violent state-building effort to delegitimize the new party-states' internal rivals and establish its moral authority.

Righteous Revolutionaries argues that the Chinese Party-state simultaneously removed perceived threats to its authority at the grassroots and bolstered its legitimacy through a process called moral mobilization. This mobilization process created a moral boundary that designated a virtuous ingroup of "the masses" and a demonized outgroup of "class enemies," mobilized the masses to participate in violence against this broadly defined outgroup, and strengthened this symbolic boundary by making the masses complicit in state violence.

Righteous Revolutionaries shows how we can find traces of moral mobilization in China today under Xi Jinping's rule. In an era where states and politicians regularly weaponize moral emotions to foment intergroup conflict and violence, understanding the dynamics of violent mobilization and state authority are more relevant than ever before.

Jeffrey A. Javed's book, "Righteous Revolutionaries: How States Appeal to Popular Morality to Forge New Group Identities and Mobilize Violence Against Perceived Threats to Their Authority," examines the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) mass mobilization of violence during its land reform campaign in the early 1950s. The book uses novel archival, documentary, and quantitative historical data to illustrate that China's land reform campaign was not just about economic redistribution but rather part of a larger, brutally violent state-building effort to delegitimize the new party-states' internal rivals and establish its moral authority.

The book argues that the CCP simultaneously removed perceived threats to its authority at the grassroots and bolstered its legitimacy through a process called moral mobilization. This mobilization process created a moral boundary that designated a virtuous ingroup of "the masses" and a demonized outgroup of "class enemies," mobilized the masses to participate in violence against this broadly defined outgroup, and strengthened this symbolic boundary by making the masses complicit in state violence.

Righteous Revolutionaries shows how we can find traces of moral mobilization in China today under Xi Jinping's rule. In an era where states and politicians regularly weaponize moral emotions to foment intergroup conflict and violence, understanding the dynamics of violent mobilization and state authority are more relevant than ever before.

Weight: 494g
Dimension: 152 x 228 x 25 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780472055494