China S Crony Capitalism

China’s efforts to modernize yielded a kleptocracy characterized by corruption, wealth inequality, and social tensions. Rejecting conventional platitudes about the resilience of Party rule, Minxin Pei gathers unambiguous evidence that beneath China’s facade of ever-expanding prosperity and power lies a Leninist state in an advanced stage of decay.

"When Deng Xiaoping launched his economic reforms in the late 1970s, he vowed to build "socialism with Chinese characteristics." Three and half decades later, behind its rapid growth and glitzy façade, modernization under one-party rule has spawned a form of rapacious crony capitalism characterized by endemic corruption, an incipient kleptocracy, record income inequality, and high social tensions. This book traces the origin of China's crony capitalism to a set of incomplete reforms of property rights in the post-Tiananmen era that have decentralized the control of public property without clarifying its ownership. This combination has created an ideal environment for political and economic elites to collude and amass private wealth through systematic theft of nominally state-owned property, in particular land, natural resources, and state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Based on illuminating details from 260 well-researched cases of corruption involved multiple officials and businessmen since the early 1990s, this study investigates how collusion among elites has penetrated the vital sectors of the Chinese political and economic systems. These cases reveal a well-developed illicit market for power inside the Chinese party-state, in which bribes and official appointments are surreptitiously but routinely traded. They also document the widespread theft inside Chinese SOEs and collusion between law enforcement officials and organized crime. Above all, through its in-depth analysis of the exchange of money for favors between government officials and private businessmen, the study shines a spotlight on the dark world of crony capitalism in China - and a Leninist regime in late-stage decay."--

Unbundles corruption into different types, examining corruption as access money in China through a comparative-historical lens.

A penetrating look into the extreme plutocracy Vladimir Putin has created and its implications for Russia’s future This insightful study explores how the economic system Vladimir Putin has developed in Russia works to consolidate control over the country. By appointing his close associates as heads of state enterprises and by giving control of the FSB and the judiciary to his friends from the KGB, he has enriched his business friends from Saint Petersburg with preferential government deals. Thus, Putin has created a super wealthy and loyal plutocracy that owes its existence to authoritarianism. Much of this wealth has been hidden in offshore havens in the United States and the United Kingdom, where companies with anonymous owners and black money transfers are allowed to thrive. Though beneficial to a select few, this system has left Russia’s economy in untenable stagnation, which Putin has tried to mask through military might.

Chinese Capitalism in a Global Era examines the dynamic ways in which millions of ethinic Chinese in East and Southeast Asian economies organize their economic activities. It analyses how Chinese capitalism has changed under conditions of contemporary globalization and anticipates what the future holds for it. The book challenges the conventional notion of Chinese cpitalism as 'crony capitalism', based around kinship networks and untouched by globalization.

This edited volume represents the first collaborative effort to explicitly view China’s rapid international ascent as associated with the same process that catapulted Great Britain, the United States, Germany, and Japan to international prominence – the emergence of a capitalist political economy. Each chapter therefore applies the capitalist lens to analyze aspects of China’s monumental social, economic, and political transition. Topics addressed range from examinations of China’s industrial capitalism and its new multinational corporations to studies of China’s changing polity, state-media relations, and foreign policy. With contributors writing from highly varied backgrounds each chapter approaches the subject from a slightly different perspective, but the underlying findings show considerable common ground. China is developing a unique form of capitalism by combining elements rooted in Chinese history, such as the prevalence of networked forms of capital and the continued dominance of the state, with the growing influence of global capital, including the rapid adaptation of recent organizational and technological innovations. Concluding chapters draw out what capitalism in the dragon’s lair implies for our 21st century world, cautioning that China’s rise is likely to challenge the present world order along both political and economic dimensions.

Crony capitalism systems—in which those close to political policymakers receive favors allowing them to earn returns far above market value—are a fundamental feature of the economies of Latin America. Haber and his expert contributors draw from case studies in Mexico, Brazil, and other countries around the world to examine the causes and consequences of cronyism.