Replication Data for: New Socialist Men (and Women)? Communist Industrial Workplace and Political Engagement in China

Many communist regimes have presided over episodes of rapid industrial development, often coupled by the establishment of a planned economic system wherein the state replaces the market as the primary provider of essential resources and services. We argue that life experience under a communist-style industrial workplace fosters a distinct and enduring set of norms and habits that shape how citizens engage with political authorities. Leveraging exogenous variations created by China’s Third Front (TF) campaign, a massive industrial relocation project that moved large-scale industrial-administrative complexes into rural and interior areas between the 1960s-1970s, we show that residents from former TF areas today are more active in contacting the government about personal and community affairs, and hold stronger preferences for state-sponsored participation channels over more contentious ones. Additional analyses suggest that these behavioral patterns are less a strategic response to current local conditions than a result of early socialization. These findings highlight important subnational variations in national communist experiences and underscore the persistent influence of early communist institutions on citizen-government interactions in late communist societies.