01588pab a2200157 454500008004000000100002200040245005300062260000900115300001400124362000800138520118000146650003001326650002201356700001801378773003401396180718b2005   xxu||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d  aO'Brien, Kevin J.  aPopular contention and its impact in rural China  c2005  ap.235-59.  aApr  aProtest outcomes in rural China are typically an outgrowth of interaction between activists, sympathetic elites, targets, and the public. Popular agitation first alerts connected officials to poor policy implementation and may prompt them to take corrective steps. As a result of participating in contention, certain activists feel empowered and become more likely to take part in future challenges, whereas others feel disillusioned and lapse into passivity. In the course of observing collective action, some onlookers are sensitized to protesters' concerns and public opinion is affected. Without popular action, better implementation, biographical change, and effects on the public would not emerge, but nor would they without involvement from above. Studying the impact of this protest thus sheds light on two issues that have long troubled students of contentious policies: (a) how to get a grip on two issues that have long troubled students of contentions politics (a) how to get a grip on indirect, mediated consequences; and (b) how to think about causality when change is a result of popular action as well as openings provided by sympathetic elites. - Reproduced.  aProtest movements - China  aProtest movements  aLi, Lianjiang  aComparative Political Studies