discontent in the Chinese countryside have proliferated in recent years.1 This burgeoning and poignant literature chronicles conflict— particularly conflict between villagers and local state agencies—and identifies popular strategies of contention, resistance, and redress. Using data collected in 2002 from the first survey of its kind on grievances and dispute-processing in rural China, I build...

Contemporary civil wars are rooted in a partial or complete breakdown of the social contract, often involving disputes over public spending, resource revenues, and taxation. A feasible social contract gives potential rebels something akin to a transfer. When this is improbable, and the potential spoils are rich then warfare is more likely. Grievances, not just pure greed, motivate war. But peac...