This book looks at how NGOs, social organizations, business associations, trade unions, and religious associations interact with the state, and explore how social actors have negotiated the influence of the state at both national and local levels, and 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. In turn, 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.

Since 1949, China has tried a large number of successful and not-so-successful corporatist experiments. What these phases have in common is a 'state corporatist' (top-down) approach, albeit with shifting degrees of state involvement; and in the present era, a snail's pace effort towards building a 'societal corporatism' (bottom-up). Over the same time period, we have also witnessed a shift from a centrally controlled corporatist state to one in which the local state has greater space to implement corporatist techniques - allowing the formation of business and professional associations at the local level, and providing them a space for local state-directed bargaining. As China embarks on its next decade, a consideration of Chinese corporatism is useful in two respects. First, foreign corporations and governments who engage in China, particularly if they come from pluralist-competitive societies, tend to misunderstand the nexus of businesses, organizations, and the state. They wrongful presume that state direction and corruption are synonymous. A more nuanced understanding of Chinese corporatism, however, leads to an important second point - that some lessons learned by Chinese experiments in corporatism, during the very period of its ascent to becoming an economic superpower, may be beneficial for foreign policymakers considering paths to a more stable public life.

This article examines the Chinese state's interactions and influences on the development of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) through a corporatist framework. It suggests that not only is the central state actively involved in the development of NGOs, but increasingly the successes of NGOs are determined by their interactions with the local state. We profile NGOs in Shanghai, of varying sizes, budgets, and issue-areas, as a case study to understand the interplay between NGOs and the local state. The article further discusses reasons behind the growing shift from central to local state influences, and the potential future implications for state-NGO relations in China.

This volume explores how Chinese institutions have adapted to the new challenges of 'state capitalism'.

Culture has an abiding influence on the way countries and business corporations are governed. This book introduces the reader to the deep philosophies that drive corporations and governments in East Asia, from China through Japan and South Korea to Singapore. With sparkling clarity and spiced with anecdotes and case studies, it depicts how respect for cultures can lead to spectacular success, or the lack of it to failure. Confucian practices such as guanxi in Chinese society, the benevolent culture of entity firms in Japan, and patriarchal chaebols in South Korea are analyzed with examples like Esquel, Nissan, and Samsung. A delightful chapter on Daoism shows how it drives Jack Ma’s Alibaba.com. In the governance of nations, the author reinforces Burke’s dictum that systems of government must be consonant with traditional cultures, and he calls out misguided attempts by the West to foist liberal democracies on civilizations in the East where respect for authority and communitarian values come before individual interest. The author advances the novel concept of the meritocratic democracy in which leaders are chosen not by electoral popularity but by proven ability. In a thought-provoking concluding chapter, he evaluates prospective constitutional changes in China that would enshrine meritocratic democracy as an alternative to liberal democracies that have turned dysfunctional in many Western nations.

China's stunning growth rates have corresponded with the rise of 'state capitalism'. Since the mid-2000s, China's political economy has stabilized around a model where most sectors are marketized and increasingly integrated with the global economy; yet strategic industries remain firmly in the grasp of an elite empire of state-owned enterprises. What are the implications of state capitalism for industrial competitiveness, corporate governance, government-business relations, and domestic welfare? How does China's model of state capitalism compare with other examples of state-directed development in late industrializing countries? As China enters a phase of more modest growth, it is especially timely to understand how its institutions have adapted to new challenges and party-state priorities. In this volume, leading scholars of China's economy, politics, history, and society explore these compelling issues.