Rising-Class Politics and its Impact on China's Path to Democracy

China's market reform over the last two decades or more have brought about a significant degree of societal stratification and the rise of class politics. The diversification of class interests forces the party-state leadership to take sides in the emerging class warfare and to show a manifest class orientation in government policy making. Mutual dependence and shared interests between the communist state and the entrepreneurial class (and other middle classes) have led to the formation of a de facto anti-democratic alliance. Meanwhile, the rapid expansion of the underclass, widespread resentment against socio-economic polarization, and the lack of institutionalized channels for articulating and advancing class interests have combined to create a potentially explosive situation that, to both the regime and its allies, has considerably increased the risks and costs of democratization. But the use of the coercive power of the state to maintain social stability has aggravated state-society tension and could push confrontation in a revolutionary direction.