Hydraulic State: Hydropower Construction and Extension of State Capacity in Contemporary China
2026-07-17
This study explores how government-invested infrastructure, especially hydropower construction, increases state capacity at the subnational level. Using a county-level dataset of over 3,400 hydropower stations built in China between 1953 and 2020, this study finds that government-led hydropower construction likely allows a strong central state to transmit and institutionalize its penetrative and extractive capacity in localities. It remains robust to an instrumental-variable approach using geographic slope and river density. A within-case study further shows that ad hoc grassroots administrative institutions created to support construction logistics, resettle citizens, and comprehend local society are often retained after completion and become permanent local authorities. These findings advance state capacity literature by empirically showing that the uneven subnational reach of state can emerge as a durable byproduct of top-down infrastructure projects.