The Chinese Corporatist State

The modern Chinese state has traditionally affected every major aspect of domestic society. With the growing liberalization of the economy, coupled with increasingly complex social issues, there is a belief that the state is retreating from an array of social problems from health to the environment. Yet, a survey of China's contemporary political landscape today reveals not only a central state which plays an active role in managing social problems, but also new state actors at the local level which are increasingly seeking to partner with various non-governmental organizations or social associations. This book looks at how NGOs, social organizations, business associations, trade unions, and religious associations interact with the state, and explores how social actors have negotiated the influence of the state at both national and local levels. It further examines how a corporatist understanding of state-society relations can be reformulated, as old and new social stakeholders play a greater role in managing contemporary social issues. The book goes on to chart the differences in how the state behaves locally and centrally, and finally discusses the future direction of the corporatist state. Drawing on a range of sources from recent fieldwork and the latest data, this timely collection will appeal to students and scholars working in the fields of Chinese politics, Chinese economics and Chinese society. Review: The Chinese Corporatist State: Adaptation, Survival and Resistance illuminates the dynamic nature of state and society relations in China. Reviving the corporatist framework, Hsu and Hasmath and all of the authors in the volume, analyze the evolution and spatial devolution of state power in China as well as the forces of both societal resistance and cooptation. The brilliant analysis is contemporary and historical, and the multi-sector case studies highlight the political, socio-cultural and economic consequences of state and society interaction. That the authors so intelligently frame the book in theoretically innovative ways results in one of the most important contributions The Chinese Corporatist State makes to China studies: the volume speaks to and animates broader comparative debates, thus appealing to Sinologists and non-China specialists alike.' - Professor Joseph Wong, Canada Research Chair, and Director, Asian Institute, University of Toronto .. is a great addition to the literature on Chinese corporatism, and will be of great interest to undergraduate and graduate students, China scholars, policy makers, journalists and business leaders who seek alternative interpretations of China's political development. After all, the embrace of a capitalist free-market economy and the persistence of a one-party rule have not only challenged the Marxist paradigm, but liberal ones as well. The corporatist framework, as the editors claim, can still shed some light on China's very dynamic and unconventional political development. - Journal of Chinese Political Science