TY - JOUR
T1 - Regaining honour and regaining legitimacy
T2 - shame, obedience and risk practices amongst Chinese communist officials
AU - Zhang, Shaoying
AU - McGhee, Derek
N1 - © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
PY - 2018/10/16
Y1 - 2018/10/16
N2 - As part of its anti-corruption campaigns in China, the Communist Party of China (CCP) provides officials opportunities to redeem themselves and renew their vows of loyalty to the Party and the people they serve. Officials must regain honour through a process of self-confrontation and self-renunciation in compulsory meetings in which they are encouraged to transform their immoral thoughts and behaviours through confessional criticism and self-criticism practices. These meetings facilitate officials’ redemption through a divinized, ritualistic and theatrical process. In the process of confession and penance, officials must expose themselves to a type of ritual martyrdom, which combines elements of shame, a commitment to absolute obedience and exposure to risk. This paper is based on original fieldwork comprising 50 interviews with high-, mid- and low-level officials across China during 2014 and 2015.
AB - As part of its anti-corruption campaigns in China, the Communist Party of China (CCP) provides officials opportunities to redeem themselves and renew their vows of loyalty to the Party and the people they serve. Officials must regain honour through a process of self-confrontation and self-renunciation in compulsory meetings in which they are encouraged to transform their immoral thoughts and behaviours through confessional criticism and self-criticism practices. These meetings facilitate officials’ redemption through a divinized, ritualistic and theatrical process. In the process of confession and penance, officials must expose themselves to a type of ritual martyrdom, which combines elements of shame, a commitment to absolute obedience and exposure to risk. This paper is based on original fieldwork comprising 50 interviews with high-, mid- and low-level officials across China during 2014 and 2015.
KW - anti-corruption
KW - Communist Party of China
KW - ethics
KW - honour
KW - legitimacy
KW - redemption
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U2 - 10.1080/03085147.2018.1528103
DO - 10.1080/03085147.2018.1528103
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85055177883
SN - 0308-5147
VL - 47
SP - 453
EP - 476
JO - Economy and Society
JF - Economy and Society
IS - 3
ER -