Revolution Modernizes Education: The Dynamic Consequences of State Building

Jin Wang, University of Arizona

The 1911 Revolution was the first democratic revolution in Chinese history. It overthrew the monarchical rule and established the first republican government in China. This paper examines how the 1911 democratic revolution and the establishment of a republic modernized China’s education system. Using a difference-in-difference approach, I find that counties supporting the revolution through violence between 1911 and 1912 had, on average, 0.28 more middle schools, 49 more middle school students, 4 more higher primary schools, and 200 more students enrolled in higher primary schools than non-participating counties within a few years after the revolution. Counties with a stronger revolutionary organization presence before 1911 also saw higher enrollment in Western-style schools. Furthermore, I find that the expansion of modern education changed the distribution of power within the country: counties that supported revolution and had more modern educational facilities produced more national-level government and military elites ten and twenty years later.

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 Presented in Session 204. Emergent States and the Dynamics of State Formation: Ideas, Institutions, and Social Change