1. Southern Political Development in Comparative Perspective

In recent years, scholars have puzzled over the fact that China’s increased economic privatization and marketization since the early 1990s have not triggered a simultaneous advance in political liberalization. Many have sought to explain why – despite a marked upsurge in popular unrest – sources of social support for the political order have remained sizeable. Seeking to shed light on this debate, this article investigates the nature and implications of the political embeddedness of China’s private capital holders. The embeddedness of these individuals is “thick” in the sense that it encompasses an inter-twined amalgam of instrumental ties and affective links to the agents and institutions of the party-state. Thick embeddedness therefore incorporates personal links that bind private capital holders to the party-state through connections that are layered with reciprocal affective components. Such close relations work against the potential interest that private capital holders might have in leading or joining efforts to press for fundamental political liberalization. Drawing on these findings, the article places China’s economic and political development in comparative perspective, and lays out the most likely scenarios for China’s future.

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Comparative Legislative StudiesLegislatures and Political Development: Lebanon, 1842-1972. By Abdo I. Baaklini Comparative Legislatures. By Jean Blondel Legislatures in Comparative Perspective. By Allan Kornberg Comparative Legislative Behavior: Frontiers of Research. By Samuel C. Patterson and John C. Wahlke

Polity ◽

10.2307/3234352 ◽

1975 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

pp. 147-155 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Alan P. Balutis

Keyword(s):

Political Development ◽

Comparative Perspective ◽

Legislative Behavior

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Muslim Cadres and Soviet Political Development: Reflections from a Comparative Perspective

World Politics ◽

10.2307/2010305 ◽

1984 ◽

Vol 37 (1) ◽

pp. 24-47 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Steven L. Burg

Keyword(s):

Central Asia ◽

Political Development ◽

Political Order ◽

Comparative Perspective ◽

Demographic Trends ◽

Soviet Leadership ◽

Important Policy ◽

Political Problem ◽

The Masses ◽

Policy Problems

Central Asia confronts the Soviet leadership in Moscow with a number of important policy problems. The difficult issues raised by economic and demographic trends in the region and the potential rise of Muslim nationalism among the masses there have received careful and increasing attention from Western analysts in recent years, as have some of the current and potential responses of the Soviet leadership to them. Far less attention, however, has been directed toward a more directly political problem raised by developments in Central Asia; a problem the resolution of which appears to be of far more pressing urgency, and which has potentially far more profound implications for the future of the Soviet political order itself: the rise of a modern, secular Muslim, communist elite.

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