Globalization and State Transformation in China
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Book Review Globalization and State Transformation in China Yongnian Zheng Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2004. ISBN 0-521-53750-9. Acta Politica (2006) 41, 434–435. doi:10.1057/palgrave.ap.5500155
The key argument in this book is of profound interest: that the Chinese state has been actively involved in the process of globalization and that globalization has played a key role in transforming the state administration in positive ways (p. 18). I would have preferred the concept of internationalization, when discussing the role of the state, as the term globalization generally implies economic activity driven by multinational corporations which takes place below the radar of state institutions and state scrutiny. Nevertheless, regardless of the term employed, Zheng Yongnian’s main finding as outlined in the early sections of the book is that the state consciously converges and diverges with the West as a strategy for dealing with the challenges of globalization (p. 36). He uses the term ‘globalism’ to describe what he calls the ‘selective importation’ of foreign ideas and structures that strengthen the state’s legitimacy and nationalist sentiment within society. Yet, he also sees the outside world playing an important role in restructuring the state (which in many cases means cutting back on the size of the bureaucracy) and introducing greater adherence to the rule of law. Zheng wisely places his study within the debate in political science about the relative role of external versus internal forces in state transformation. But it is not easy to show the domestic impact of external variables, particularly when one does not employ detailed, micro-level case studies, or in-depth interviews. Downsizing the state establishment and increasing government transparency might be linked to globalization and China’s entry into the WTO because many governmental administrative approvals or regulatory functions became illegal under the WTO. However, much of this effort to cut the bureaucracy began well before China’s WTO accession. Moreover, Zheng does not successfully demonstrate the transnational links. Although the discussion of bureaucratic reform is interesting, he does not address the relationship between administrative reform and globalization. In Chapter Three, where he discusses the strategy of ‘globalism,’ and ‘selective importation’ of Western values, the reader is not told what foreign institutions were actually imported. Chapter Six looks at the issue of fiscal reform and the reform of state enterprises, but there is no discussion of the impact of international forces on these reforms; even
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when he discusses economic nationalism as an impetus for enterprise restructuring, Zheng emphasizes its role in building a unified market, not its role in enhancing China’s global competition. Fortunately, Chapter Eight returns to the globalization theme and presents a very useful discussion of the ‘contending visions of the state’ held by two competing ideological groups in China, liberals and new left-wi
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