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Institutions and
Institutional Change
in China
Premodernity and Modernization
Fei-Ling Wang
The Sam Nunn School of International Affairs
Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
First published in Great Britain 1998 by
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London
Companies and representatives throughout the world
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-1-349-40648-7 ISBN 978-0-333-99476-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-0-333-99476-4
First published in the United States of America 1998 by
ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC.,
Scholarly and Reference Division,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010
ISBN 978-0-312-21360-2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wang, Fei-Ling.
Institutions and institutional change in China : premodernity and
modernization I Fei-Ling Wang.
p. em.-(International political economy series)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 978-0-312-21360-2 (cloth)
1. Social change--China. 2. Social change-Study and teaching.
3. China-Social conditions. 4. China-Politics and government.
5. China-Civilization. 6. China-Economic conditions. 7. Economic
development-Social aspects. I. Title. II. Series.
HN733. W35 1998
303.4'0951-DC21 97-48642
CIP
© Fei-Ling Wang 1998
Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover 1st edition 1998 978-0-333-73080-5
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made
without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with
written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by
the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London WlP 9HE.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to
criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance
with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and
sustained forest sources.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98
To Yvonne and Justin
May the old wisdom of five millennia
continue to enrich your lives
in a young nation of three centuries
Contents
List of Tables and Figures X
Preface Xl
Acknowledgments XV
List of Abbreviations xvii
1 Institutions, Institutional Changes, and Modernization:
A Conceptual Framework. 1
I. Modernization: The Arguments 2
An Alternative Analytical Framework 5
II. Human Needs, Behaviors and Institutions 8
Human Behavior and Human Institutions 8
Three Institutional Domains of Human Behavior 13
Human Groupings and the Unit of Institutional
Analysis 16
Institutions and the Issue of Institutional Legitimacy 18
Market, Premodern Social Life, Civil Society, and
the State 20
III. An Institutional Understanding of Modernity and
Modernization 26
Modernity: An Institutional Notion 27
The Routes to Modernity 33
The Variety of Modernity 39
The Issue of "Post-Modernity" 40
IV. Timing and Other Remaining Methodological Issues 41
The Issue of Timing in Institutional Analysis 42
Why a State-led Route? 45
Some Remaining Methodological Issues 48
v. Summary 49
Notes 50
2 The Indicators: A Theory on Labor Allocation Patterns 58
I. Labor Allocation Patterns: The Notion 59
II. The Historical Types of LAP 60
Vll
viii Contents
The Traditional LAP 62
The Labor Market 64
Authoritarian State Allocation 70
III. Summary 72
Notes 73
3 A Historical Review of the Chinese Domestic Organizational
Structure: A Peculiar Premodernity 75
I. Labor Allocation in China: From Qin to Qing
(Third Century Be-Nineteenth Century AD) 78
Family-based LAP 81
Serfdom and Slavery 85
Commercialization, Handicraft Industries and Local
Labor Markets 86
II. The Era of Changes (1840-1949) 88
Labor Market and Some Profound Distortions 88
III. "Leaping Forward" to the Past (1949-78) 93
Land Reform, Collectivization, and the Communes 93
To Establish the Urban Authoritarian State LAP 97
IV. The Chinese Premodernity: Messages from the
Reading of History 105
A Stable Premodern Domestic Organizational
Structure and Culture 106
The Importance of International Isolation in
Chinese History 111
Authoritarian Politics as the Norm 112
The Lack of a Civil Society 114
Some Peculiarities of the PRC 115
V. Summary 116
Notes 117
4 Institutional Reconfiguration: Labor Allocation Patterns
and Chinese Modernization 125
I. To Observe Chinese Modernization: Assertions and
Hypotheses 126
China: An "Old" Latecomer 126
Chinese Modernization: A Speculation 129
II. Mixed LAPs in the 1990s: Institutional
Continuities and Changes 133
The Reform and the Coexistence of Four LAPs 133
Contents IX
The Old LAPs: The Continuity of Institutional
Premodernity 141
The New LAPs: The Prospects for Chinese
Modernization 150
III. Summary 157
Notes 160
5 Conclusion: The Dragon Enters the Nets 166
I. Institutions and Institutional Changes: To
Understand Modernization 166
An Institutional Approach 166
An Initial Assessment 169
II. To Emerge from Premodernity: China and the
Chinese Modernization 171
A Super-Stable Premodern Nation 171
The Mixed and Transitional Domestic Organizational
Structure of Today's PRC 174
Issues of a State-led Modernization 176
The Dragon Enters the Nets 180
III. The Dragon in the Nets: An Epilogue 182
An Emerging Modernity in China 183
Major Obstructing Problems 184
A Chinese Modernity 188
Notes 191
Appendix. A Methodological Discussion on Chinese
Statistical Data 198
Bibliography 204
Index 223
