PG 378 | Chinese Political Economy

Although China can lay claim to both the world's longest continuous civilization and the first modern state, in just the past half century, China has experienced tumultuous political revolution, sweeping reform and most recently painful retrenchment. This begs the questions: Will the growing divisions between rich and poor, coastal and provincial, urban and peasant tear China apart? Can the center hold? Can the Chinese political economy, its environment, and indeed the world accommodate not only a billion capitalist workers and consumers, but also embrace the same number of potential citizens demanding a political voice in their future? Will China's "rise" be peaceful? These questions are empirical, not rhetorical, and their answers are as important as they are uncertain. Students employ the analytical tools of comparative political economy to frame appropriate questions and weigh those factors most relevant to this remarkable story of socio-political and economic development: political and economic, social and cultural, structural and historical, domestic and international.