Elite Corporatism

Abstract

Readers who have patiently reached this point must have the following question in mind: what is your point after showing so many details about the capitalists in China? Here is the short answer in three sentences, while the remaining chapter will be the long one: (1) Conditions for the capitalists in China to develop into an independent social and political force have never been ripe, although we cannot rule out the possibility that they will be in the future; (2) Their dependence on the Chinese state makes a corporatist relationship between the Chinese state and the most powerful capitalists the most desirable for both sides, which was the case under the Nationalist government as well as under today’s Communist rule; (3) While this relationship somehow fits the conception of ‘corporatism’, it takes a flavour of elitism as well, because the capitalists have not been economically strong enough to confront the mighty state collectively.