The Rise of the Social and the Chinese State

Abstract

The systematic straddlings between political and economic spheres that the Chinese society is witnessing does not seem to impede economic growth. Does that mean that China has to be considered an exception in the apparent convergence of different modernizing countries towards the Weberian model of the state? In this article I suggest another way of solving the apparent contradiction between the two faces of Chinese society. When Chinese society is compared with modern societies as they really function the contradiction disappears. Indeed, according to numerous authors, modern societies are not characterized by a clear distinction between public and private spheres, economic and political relations but by the blurring of these distinctions under the influence of a societalization of the state. In other words, political life is more and more centered on “domestic” problems (income, investment, employment, etc.) while the control of the state on society is gradually increasing. As we compare China to these characteristics of the modernizing process it is possible to understand how corruption and economic growth can go hand in hand, why official-led capitalism does not endanger prosperity, how the apparently inefficient Chinese state meets social challenges, and why the worsening of social problems does not lead to social unrest.