China's Economic Development and Democratization (review)

The Chinese reforms begun in 1978 initiated changes in the two different but closely linked areas of economics and politics. The progress in the economic reforms has been quite rapid and impressive: industrial and agricultural outputs have increased significantly, international trade has gone from being a near afterthought to a major component of the economy, and China is now one of the world's largest economies. The political changes have been similarly notable as the country, in contrast to the frequent chaos that characterized Mao Zedong's leadership, has now completed three relatively orderly central leadership transitions. In addition, China has institutionalized the private sector and is now experimenting with local elections. Given the extent of these economic and political changes, is China progressing toward democracy? Developing an answer to this question is the central focus of Yanlai Wang's book.

Written from a political science perspective, the book is divided into five sections covering three relatively broad dimensions. Chapter 1 introduces and sets up the book. In chapter 2 the author begins the development of the first dimension, an institutional analytic framework. The framework discussion includes three important components. First, the author notes that since there are many different types of democracy, his focus is on liberal democracy, which includes popular-majority elections, competition between potential political representatives, and freedom of speech. Second, the author looks at various political-transition models before developing his own model with six institutional environments that act on agents and institutions in China. By developing a variety of environments and allowing them to interact dynamically with these agents and institutions, the resulting model is argued to be more appropriate to China's particular situation, but the multidimensional dynamic components of this model may be applicable to other countries as well. Third, and finally, the author identifies the various agents and institutions in China.

In section 2, the author moves to the second dimension, which is the exploration of the institutional changes taking place within China. The two chapters of this section explore the leadership transition from Mao Zedong to Deng Xiao-ping. Chapter 3 focuses on the institutional changes under Mao's leadership. In particular the author identifies a continuum of policy institutionalization processes that range from a Type A parliamentary institutional norm to a Type E individual autocratic institutional norm and then details how Mao transformed post-1949 China from a Type A system into a Type E system. Chapter 4 then quickly reviews the sequence of events leading to Deng Xiaoping's rise to power.

The exploration of the institutional changes within China continue in section 3, but the author's focus shifts a bit to the process of policy institutionalization during the reform era. Chapter 5 discusses how the agricultural reforms and the advancement of the open-door trade policy reflect an important change in institutional norms. Having already identified China as a Type E system on the eve of Mao's death, the author argues that the process of institutionalizing these reforms reflects a movement back toward the institutional norms of Type A or Type B (oligarchic decisions with parliamentary institutionalization). Chapter 6 deals with how the shifts from allowing a quite limited private sector to the eventual adoption of a Socialist Market Economy and then to constitutional protection of private property reflect the changes in the ideology of the Chinese Communist Party. Here, the author contends that the changes in institutional norms and in Party ideology could be interpreted as transitional steps to what would eventually become a Chinese democracy.

In section 4, which consists of chapter 7, the author turns to the third dimension, namely changes in public perception. This is explored by looking at the changes in a national public-opinion poll originally taken in 1990 and then replicated and supplemented in a new survey conducted in the greater Shanghai region (Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang) by the author and his collaborators in...