Modern China; Sep2019, Vol. 45 Issue 5, p471-503, 33p
Subjects
ENTREPRENEURSHIP, BUSINESSPEOPLE, SOCIALISM -- China, ECONOMIC conditions in China, and ORGANIZATIONAL legitimacy
Abstract
This article, the product of several years of extensive fieldwork, seeks to reinvigorate the debate on China's private entrepreneurs by arguing that they have become a "strategic group" within the Chinese polity. While they do not openly challenge the current regime, they continuously alter the power balance within the current regime coalition, which connects them to the party-state at all administrative levels. As the future of Chinese socialism depends on the sound development of the private-sector economy and, therefore, on the promotion of private entrepreneurship, it can be expected that entrepreneurial influence within the regime coalition will rise, with inevitable consequences for regime legitimacy and stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Review of Radical Political Economics. Dec2013, Vol. 45 Issue 4, p440-448. 9p.
Subjects
SOCIALISM, GOVERNMENT business enterprises, CAPITALISM, GOVERNMENT ownership, ECONOMIC conditions in China, 2000-, and CHINA -- Politics & government -- 2002-
Abstract
The recent round of debate over China’s state and private economy has fundamentally touched upon whether or not China should abandon or strengthen the socialist elements within the market economy. In this paper, we argue that the debate is, in essence, a continued class struggle in the political and ideological superstructure. Then we discuss the foreseeable future of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) under current political and economic conditions. We will further propose the necessary reforms for the SOEs to move towards a truly socialist form of public ownership. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
As part of the movement to "construct a new socialist countryside", Chinese officials and social activists are experimenting with transforming rural social and economic relations. They often draw on discourses dating back to the Rural Reconstruction Movement of the 1920s and 1930s, which saw urban intellectuals making similar efforts to modernize the villages and their inhabitants. This paper analyses the different types of relationships between the state, social activists, and villagers in a number of rural reconstruction projects. The state is still the major player in this field, but traditional top-down procedures are often perceived to be unproductive when it comes to micro-level community building, so state actors are forced to find allies among village elites and social activists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
