Paradigms Powering Chinas Rise A Historical Perspective

The primary aim of this book is to understand the ground-breaking paradigms and policies that have powered China's remarkable rise: from an agricultural society to an industrial powerhouse and a leading nation — and that too in a span of merely forty years from 1979 to 2019. The book covers the rise of China up to 2019 and is divided into five parts. The first part takes a strategic view of China's rise, the second part provides a quantitative assessment of China's rise using macroeconomic indicators; the third part provides a historical background of modern China, starting from the unification of China in 221 BC to the rise to power of the Communist Party of China, leading to the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949. The fourth part analyses China's governance as well as its economic system and lastly, part five summarizes China's rise and the paradigms that powered this rise.

China, with its geographical, historical, cultural, and political distance from the West, long has been a black box upon which we readily paste labels--communist, non-Western, developing country--but whose internal logic remains a mystery to us. Arguing that it would be a major step forward in our genuine knowledge of China if we understood its internal dynamic, this innovative book considers China from a historical perspective to chart its current dynamic and future direction. Renowned historians, economists, and political scientists explore the internal dynamic of China's rise since traditional times through the key themes of China's identity, security, economy, environment, energy, and politics. Each themed section pairs a historian with a social scientist to give an overall view of where China is coming from and where it is heading. One of the PRC's best-known experts on international relations provides a concluding reflection on the political psychology of China's view of itself in the world. Although a China-centered perspective does not yield clear, absolute truths about China's rise, focusing on change in the PRC from pre-modern times to the present allows us to distinguish between China's own dynamic and its relative change of position vis- -vis other actors, including ourselves. Written in clear and accessible style, this nuanced book will be essential reading for all readers interested in China past and present and its growing global role. Contributions by: Lowell Dittmer, Erica S. Downs, Mark Elvin, Joseph W. Esherick, Joseph Fewsmith, Barry Naughton, Dwight H. Perkins, Qin Yaqing, Evelyn S. Rawski, R. Keith Schoppa, Michael D. Swaine, and Brantly Womack.

China's rise to power from a fallen economy perhaps an important question deals with whether China has been able to convert its rising power into international influence and, if so, whether this influence extends to the international system as a whole or exists on a country-to-country basis. It is widely assumed that China's growing capabilities and activities translate into influence, but the linkage remains assumed and not proven. Evaluating the connection between power and influence should at once help assess the dynamics surrounding China's rise while helping scholars attain a deeper understanding of international relations concepts such as "power transitions" and "great power status." Political and academic discussions often take for granted that growing Chinese power translates into Chinese influence in world politics. The central question in much of the scholarly and policy literature is "what kind of great power is China becoming?" There are, however, at least questions that must be addressed surrounding the nature of "China's rise" before investigating China's great power status as such.

China's rise to power is the signal event of the twenty-first century, and this volume offers a contemporary view of this nation in ascendancy from the inside. Eight recent essays by Xu Jilin, a popular historian and one of China's most prominent public intellectuals, critique China's rejection of universal values and the nation's embrace of Chinese particularism, the rise of the cult of the state and the acceptance of the historicist ideas of Carl Schmitt and Leo Strauss. Xu's work is distinct both from better-known voices of dissent and also from the 'New Left' perspectives, offering instead a liberal reaction to the complexity of China's rise. Yet this work is not a shrill denunciation of Xu's intellectual enemies, but rather a subtle and heartfelt call for China to accept its status as a great power and join the world as a force for good.

The rise of China is no doubt one of the most important events in world economic history since the Industrial Revolution. Mainstream economics, especially the institutional theory of economic development based on a dichotomy of extractive vs. inclusive political institutions, is highly inadequate in explaining China's rise. This book argues that only a radical reinterpretation of the history of the Industrial Revolution and the rise of the West (as incorrectly portrayed by the institutional theory) can fully explain China's growth miracle and why the determined rise of China is unstoppable despite its current 'backward' financial system and political institutions. Conversely, China's spectacular and rapid transformation from an impoverished agrarian society to a formidable industrial superpower sheds considerable light on the fundamental shortcomings of the institutional theory and mainstream 'blackboard' economic models, and provides more-accurate reevaluations of historical episodes such as Africa's enduring poverty trap despite radical political and economic reforms, Latin America's lost decades and frequent debt crises, 19th century Europe's great escape from the Malthusian trap, and the Industrial Revolution itself.

2017 marked the seventy-fifth anniversary of Schumpeter’s Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, a work acknowledged as one of the most insightful books written in the twentieth century. It retains a contemporary quality, and still invites criticisms, new interpretations, and extensions and across disciplines. This book, in addition to re-examining Schumpeter’s seminal work and undertaking a twenty-first-century update of its main themes, brings together leading social scientists to provide contemporary amendments, extensions – or eventually refutations – of key elements of Schumpeter’s vision and thesis. Issues covered include a new take on creative destruction, the contours of a theory of innovative enterprise, finance and financialisation, a critique of the secular stagnation thesis, Schumpeter’s contributions to a theory of the entrepreneurial state, his conception of socialism and its current relevance for understanding the 'China model' as well as a rekindling of his democracy thesis for our times. Bringing together leading international contributors, this book provides fresh perspectives on ideas that continue to be hugely relevant to contemporary social sciences and a guide for understanding the current tensions among capitalism, the state and democracy. These chapters will be of interest to economists, social scientists and anyone with an interest in modern capitalism.

The book seeks to understand China's evolving political and economic role in Africa and assesses what impacts Chinese aid, trade and investment have on the politics of specific African countries, and the extent to which it excites geopolitical competition.

The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Political Geography aims to account for the intellectual and worldly developments that have taken place in and around political geography in the last 10 years. Bringing together established names in the field as well as new scholars, it highlights provocative theoretical and conceptual debates on political geography from a range of global perspectives. Discusses the latest developments and places increased emphasis on modes of thinking, contested key concepts, and on geopolitics, climate change and terrorism Explores the influence of the practice-based methods in geography and concepts including postcolonialism, feminist geographies, the notion of the Anthropocene, and new understandings of the role of non-human actors in networks of power Offers an accessible introduction to political geography for those in allied fields including political science, international relations, and sociology

Geopolitics and Development examines the historical emergence of development as a form of governmentality, from the end of empire to the Cold War and the War on Terror. It illustrates the various ways in which the meanings and relations of development as a discourse, an apparatus and an aspiration, have been geopolitically imagined and enframed. The book traces some of the multiple historical associations between development and diplomacy and seeks to underline the centrality of questions of territory, security, statehood and sovereignty to the pursuit of development, along with its enrolment in various (b)ordering practices. In making a case for greater attention to the evolving nexus between geopolitics and development and with particular reference to Africa, the book explores the historical and contemporary geopolitics of foreign aid, the interconnections between development and counterinsurgency, the role of the state and social movements in (re)imagining development, the rise of (re)emerging donors like China, India and Brazil, and the growing significance of South–South flows of investment, trade and development cooperation. Drawing on post-colonial and postdevelopment approaches and on some of the author’s own original empirical research, this is an essential, critical and interdisciplinary analysis of the complex and dynamic political geographies of global development. Primarily intended for scholars and post-graduate students in development studies, human geography, African studies and international relations, this book provides an engaging, invaluable and up-to-date resource for making sense of the complex entanglement between geopolitics and development, past and present.