Bai Gao

The Rubik's Cube state: A reconceptualization of political change in contemporary China

The structural perspective on Chinas prospect of democratization has three variants. The first emphasizes the structural requisites for the survival of the authoritarian state. It argues that the conditions, such as the governing capacity of the state and support from the Chinese people that used to sustain the authoritarian state, have deteriorated significantly and the authoritarian state cannot escape a collapse in the near future (Chang, 2001). The second focuses on the structural requisites for democratization. It holds that the rise of the middle class and the emerging spread of education in China will create favorable conditions for the country to head toward democratization (Gilley, 2004). The third stresses the resilience of Chinas authoritarian regime. It argues that the rise of democratic polity in Europe resulted from the special social structures of the continent in the feudal period. Since Chinas social structure in its premodern period was quite different, democracy did not become a solution even after the middle class emerged in China. For the same reason, Chinas political change will be most likely to move toward rule by law rather than democratization in the future (Pan, 2006).

The State and the Associational Order of the Economy: The Institutionalization of Cartels and Trade Associations in 1931–45 Japan

The existing literature on the impact of the state on the associational order has emphasized the states concern on the implications of the associational order to the public goods and the role of the associational order as a policy tool of the state. However, few studies have investigated what particular characters of the state shape the pattern of the associational order. Through a historical analysis, this study highlights three important factors related to the state that contributed to the the rise of the associational order in Japan during the Great Depression and World War II. First, the shift of the state preference from protecting the liberties of private enterprises toward maintaining political stability in economic crisis and controlling resource allocation in war was the ultimate driving force behind the rise of associational order. Second, the constitutional order of the Japanese state, which involves not only the organization, composition, powers, and limitation of the states executive, legislative, and jurisdictional branches, but also the peoples liberties defined by the constitution, was strongly influenced by the continental legal tradition. This structurally shaped the Japanese pattern of the associational order. Third, the institutionalized legal and economic beliefs of property rights provided ideological support to the rise of the associational order.

Neoliberal and Classical Developmentalism: A Comparative Analysis of the Chinese and Japanese Models of Economic Development

In the past few years China’s development model experienced a major transformation. After 30 years of opening and reform, China’s development has achieved astonishing results. In 2012, China’s per capita GDP exceeded 6,094 USD (IMF WEO 2013). At the same time, however, there are problems with the developmental model, and with changes in the international conditions and the domestic environment, these problems have become more prominent.