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Petitioning Beijing: sub-national variation

ABSTRACT Scholars associate high tides of petitioning Beijing with changes in the central leadership and decreases of petitioning Beijing with the coercion and bribery tactics used by local officials. Yet it remains a mystery why some regions have a larger amount of petitions to Beijing than others. This article analyzes a unique dataset on petitioning Beijing in one province in 2004 and finds that the level of development is a significant factor in predicting the frequency of petitioning Beijing at the county level. Another unique analysis of petitions filed to the Ministry of Civil Affairs Xitong across 31 provincial regions supports the above finding, which may be generalized to petitioning at all levels of government.