Politics at the Boundary: Mixed Signals and the Chinese State
In this conceptual essay, the authors argue that one way to understand the Chinese state is to view it from below, from the perspective of people advocating change. The authors’ “state reflected in society” approach is illustrated with accounts of Chinese lawyers, journalists, and NGO leaders who operate at the boundary of the acceptable and [...]
Read moreA Brief Comment on Ivan Szelenyi’s Comment
Ivan Szelenyi argues that no third way alternatives to capitalist market economy and socialist planned economy are possible, a conclusion he reached after his own searches for such dating back to the 1980s. My comment responds to his two main points, about a “real estate bubble,” and hence the non-sustainability of Chongqing’s third finance, and [...]
Read morePolitical Ideology, the Party, and Politicking: Justice System Reform in China
The Modern Chinese Family: In Light of Economic and Legal History
Most social science theory and the currently powerful Chinese ideology of modernizationism assume that, with modern development, family-based peasant farm production will disappear, to be replaced by individuated industrial workers and the three-generation family by the nuclear family. The actual record of China’s economic history, however, shows the powerful persistence of the small family farm, [...]
Read moreThe Modern Chinese Family: In Light of Economic and Legal History
Most social science theory and the currently powerful Chinese ideology of modernizationism assume that, with modern development, family-based peasant farm production will disappear, to be replaced by individuated industrial workers and the three-generation family by the nuclear family. The actual record of China’s economic history, however, shows the powerful persistence of the small family farm, [...]
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