Sources of social support for China’s current political order: The “thick embeddedness” of private capital holders

2010 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher A. McNally ◽  
Teresa Wright
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Political Order ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
The Political ◽  
Private Capital ◽  
Political Liberalization ◽  
Affective Components ◽  
Party State ◽  
Shed Light

In recent years, scholars have puzzled over the fact that China’s increased economic privatization and marketization since the early 1990s have not triggered a simultaneous advance in political liberalization. Many have sought to explain why – despite a marked upsurge in popular unrest – sources of social support for the political order have remained sizeable. Seeking to shed light on this debate, this article investigates the nature and implications of the political embeddedness of China’s private capital holders. The embeddedness of these individuals is “thick” in the sense that it encompasses an inter-twined amalgam of instrumental ties and affective links to the agents and institutions of the party-state. Thick embeddedness therefore incorporates personal links that bind private capital holders to the party-state through connections that are layered with reciprocal affective components. Such close relations work against the potential interest that private capital holders might have in leading or joining efforts to press for fundamental political liberalization. Drawing on these findings, the article places China’s economic and political development in comparative perspective, and lays out the most likely scenarios for China’s future.

scholarly journals Approaching Chinese Freedom: A Study in Absolute and Relative Values

2013 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Political Order ◽  
Popular Sovereignty ◽  
The Political ◽  
Chinese History ◽  
The West ◽  
Late Qing ◽  
China Model ◽  
Western Values ◽  
Universal Values ◽  
Party State

The rise of stability preservation to dominance in the political order coincided with a highly charged debate over “universal values” and a closely related discussion of a “China Model”. This paper analyses the critique of universal values as a “wedge issue” that is used to pre-empt criticism of the party-state by appealing to nationalism and cultural essentialism. Taking freedom as a case in point of a universal value, it shows that, while more developed in the West, freedom has an authentic Chinese history with key watersheds in the late Qing reception of popular sovereignty and the ending of the Maoist era. The work of Wang Ruoshui, Qin Hui and Xu Jilin display some of the resources liberals now bring to “de-wedging” universal values, not least freedom. They share a refusal to regard “Western” values as essentially hostile to Chinese.

The Bulgarian ethnic model: post-1989 Bulgarian ethnic conflict resolution

2011 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 441-460 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benedict E. DeDominicis
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
Ethnic Conflict ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Political Competition ◽  
Critical Factor ◽  
Communist Regime ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Liberalization ◽  
Civil Strife ◽  
Constrained Behavior

Bulgarian majority and Turkish minority relations have remained peaceful in the post Communist era despite a significant potential for civil strife. These antagonisms were a product of Bulgaria's historical political development. The most recent episode of forced assimilation policies under the Communist regime was a critical grievance contributing to the democratic transition in 1989. Unlike in neighboring Yugoslavia, communal ethnic conflict did not escalate to violence with political liberalization and the emergence of democratic political competition. A critical factor in the political formula for maintaining interethnic peace in Bulgaria has been Turkey's comparatively constrained behavior as a “motherland state” with regard to the Turkish Diaspora in Bulgaria.

scholarly journals Party-State Capitalism in China

2021 ◽  
Vol 120 (827) ◽  
pp. 207-213
Author(s):  
Margaret Pearson ◽  
Meg Rithmire ◽  
Kellee S. Tsai
Keyword(s):  
State Ownership ◽  
The Political ◽  
Private Capital ◽  
Political Survival ◽  
State Capitalism ◽  
Private Interests ◽  
Party Line ◽  
Foreign Governments ◽  
Foreign Corporations ◽  
Party State

China’s economic model, commonly described as “state capitalist,” is now better characterized as party-state capitalism, in which the political survival of the Communist Party trumps developmental goals. Its tools for managing the economy include not only state ownership and market interventions, but increasing use of party-state power to discipline private capital. China’s entrepreneurs are now expected to adhere to the party line, as are foreign corporations operating in the country. The shift is fueling a backlash from foreign governments that view the fusion of state and private interests in China as a threat to their own national security.

The Geography of Diplomacy

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Herman van der Wusten ◽  
Virginie Mamadouh
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
Political Order ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Core ◽  
External Relations ◽  
Centralization And Decentralization ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Geographical Context ◽  
Incremental Increase

The fields of geography and diplomacy have traditionally been closely intertwined. Diplomacy is conventionally the conduct of statecraft in the nonviolent manifestations of external relations by a specific institution. These nonviolent manifestations can be variously merged with the use of armed force. The political order of the system of states—statecraft emanates from its separate entities—is deeply permeated by geography, notably by the application of territorial control. The art of diplomacy is inextricably linked to spatial perceptions, aims at place-based assets, and plays out in a given geographical context. As the system of states has evolved by incremental increase, functional cooperation, fragmentations and mergers, and internal centralization and decentralization of separate states, the diplomatic institution has had to adapt. As more and more non-state parties commit themselves to transboundary relations or find themselves so implicated, diplomatic practice becomes more widely required, the core of the diplomatic institution still settled in the apparatus of states. This article is consecutively concerned with different aspects of the overlap of geography and diplomacy. In the introduction the ways in which academic geographers have over time shed light on this common ground is briefly reviewed. The next section provides an inventory of the mappings of the diplomatic web to get a sense of its general cartography, followed by descriptions of the diplomatic niche, the places where diplomacy is practiced. In the diplomatic worldview and the geographic frame, the geographic notions that are relevant to the diplomatic institution are followed according to reasoning and travel practice. Finally, shifts in the practice, contents, and functions of diplomacy are dealt with over time, based on the major geographical forces that affect the system of states in and beyond which diplomacy operates.

Muslim Cadres and Soviet Political Development: Reflections from a Comparative Perspective

1984 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven L. Burg
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Political Order ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
Demographic Trends ◽  
Soviet Leadership ◽  
Important Policy ◽  
Political Problem ◽  
The Masses ◽  
Policy Problems

Central Asia confronts the Soviet leadership in Moscow with a number of important policy problems. The difficult issues raised by economic and demographic trends in the region and the potential rise of Muslim nationalism among the masses there have received careful and increasing attention from Western analysts in recent years, as have some of the current and potential responses of the Soviet leadership to them. Far less attention, however, has been directed toward a more directly political problem raised by developments in Central Asia; a problem the resolution of which appears to be of far more pressing urgency, and which has potentially far more profound implications for the future of the Soviet political order itself: the rise of a modern, secular Muslim, communist elite.

The Street Leaders of Seoul and the Foundations of the South Korean Political Order

2015 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 636-674 ◽  
Author(s):  
ERIK MOBRAND
Keyword(s):  
Political Development ◽  
State Building ◽  
Political Mobilization ◽  
Political Order ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Electoral Institutions ◽  
Dirty Work ◽  
Political Careers ◽  
South Korean

AbstractIn the decade and a half following Korean liberation from Japan in 1945, a category of men prowled Seoul's back alleys and also its halls of power. These figures might be called street leaders, for they were directly linked on one hand to private agents of violence and on the other to the top state and political elites of the country. The most notorious individuals included Kim Tu-han, a gang leader who became an elected politician, and Yi Chŏng-jae, a ‘political gangster’ who helped party politicians with their dirty work. Street leaders like Kim and Yi were on the scene at key moments in the republic's early political development. An examination of the political careers of Kim and Yi reveals how important cooperation between such actors and elite politicians was to state-building, political mobilization, and design of electoral institutions—processes that created the contemporary South Korean polity. Both the alliances between politicians and street leaders as well as the destruction of those alliances left deep impressions on South Korean politics.

Southern Political Development in Comparative Perspective

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Mickey
Keyword(s):  
South Carolina ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
The Political ◽  
Deep South ◽  
Comparative Historical Analysis ◽  
To Come ◽  
Party State

This book examines the democratization of authoritarian enclaves in America's Deep South during the period 1944–1972. Through a comparative historical analysis of the experiences of Georgia, Mississippi, and South Carolina, it shows how the cohesion of elites and party–state capacity contributed to differences in modes of democratization across the Deep South. It suggests that the advancement of Republicans was in part a consequence and a cause of these democratization processes. This introductory chapter discusses some of the alternative perspectives on postwar southern political culture, along with the role of the political economy and black insurgency in southern political development. It also describes the phenomenon of authoritarian enclaves and offers some intuitions about how they might be democratized, focusing on subnational authoritarianism and subnational democratization. Finally, it provides an overview of the book's research design and summarizes the findings to come.

Economic Crisis and Post-Rentier Democratization in the Arab World: The Case of Jordan

1992 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rex Brynen
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Foreign Aid ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Political Stability ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
Political Order ◽  
The Political ◽  
Critical Aspect ◽  
Political Liberalization ◽  
Eventual Collapse

AbstractThe article argues that in many Arab countries the political economy of regional petroleum wealth has served to inhibit democratization. In the particular case of Jordan, petrodollar foreign aid and workers' remittances long served as a critical aspect of political stability, supporting regime neo-patrimonialism and blunting pressures for greater participation. Equally, the decline of those revenues in the late 1980s spurred the eventual collapse of the foundations upon which the old economic and political order had been built. With this came the need to negotiate a new social contract, resulting in a far-reaching process of political liberalization and partial democratization after April 1989.

scholarly journals On political and philosophical identity: From dissident Marxist to revolutionary democrat

2003 ◽  
pp. 137-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Svetozar Stojanovic
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Social Democracy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Post Communism ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
West European

In this paper the author seeks to shed light on the political and philosophical context of the second half of 20th century in which he intellectually came of age. In his intellectual and political development the author distinguishes three main phases. He characterizes the first phase of his development as Praxis, revisionist, dissident Marxism and reformist communism. The second phase was post-Marxism and post-communism, while in the last decade of the 20th century the author defines his theoretical views as non-Marxist. The author defines his latest philosophical-political standpoint as social democratic which, after his own self-understanding, comes closest to West European social democracy. .

Eenpartijstaten in Zwart Afrika : Evolutie, recente ontwikkelingen, perspectieven

Res Publica ◽  
1970 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-179
Author(s):  
Filip Reyntjens
Keyword(s):  
Political Development ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Party System ◽  
The Political ◽  
National Unity ◽  
Political Class ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Party Ideology ◽  
Coups D'etat ◽  
Party State

Together with the emergence of strong executive presidencies and the frequency of coups d'Etat, the single party is one of the striking features of the political development in Africa South of the Sahara since 1960.More than half the countries of the continent are presently under one-party rule. This article attempts to analyse the origins, recent developments, and perspectives in the field of African single-party states. Sameelements favourable to the emergence of this phenomenon were the colonial heritage, the precolonial tradition, and the aura of legitimacy of the national liberation movements. Several techniques were usedby African leaders to impose rule by one party; distinction is made between political, legal and institutional, and authoritarian means. African leaders have relied on several justifications to rationalise the introduction of such regimes : economie development, national unity and nation-building, the absence of class-differentiation, the unanimitarian tradition, and the need to give constitutional recognition to a de facto situation. A critical  analysis shows that these arguments do not, in general, withstand closer examination. The conclusion is that the single-party «ideology» serves mainly to protect the hegemony of a small and privileged political class of rulers against challenge of its position. As far as perspectives are concerned, three possibilities seem to be developing simultaneously : the Party-State, the no-party state, and the multi-party state. It is argued in a conclusion that the single-party state need not be undemocratic ; some conditions for a democratic one-party system are set forth.

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