A new book questions the impact of free-market reforms on China’s obsolete, corrupt government.
This Ellen Bork review of the book by political scientist Minxin Pei includes some interesting discussion points:
While Pei is generous to the intellectual adherents of the gradualist economic theory, he argues that favorable assessments are distorted by the failure to consider “the greatest constraint on economic reform: an authoritarian regime’s fear of losing power during reform.” Such fear prevents the ruling elites from making “accompanying reforms that restructure the key political institutions that define power relations and enforce the rules essential to the functioning of markets, such as the security of property rights, transparency of government, and accountability of leaders.”
Later, the author suggests another way in which China might open its government to real reform:
The “trapped transition” is not sustainable. Democracy may come, not led willingly by the Communist party, but, says Pei, “more likely as the result of a sudden crisis brought on by years of corruption, mismanagement, and institutional decay.” It is not a criticism to say that Pei doesn’t offer much in the way of policy recommendations. He offers an indictment of the claim that economic development will lead to democracy, rebuking the premise upon which U.S. policy toward China has been based under presidents of both parties.
