Market Economics and Political Change

Comparing China and Mexico

Contributions by Gaye Christoffersen, Jorge I. Dominguez, David D. Finley, David Hendrickson, Lorenzo Meyer, Robert A. Packenham, Pitman B. Potter Edited by Juan D. Lindau, Timothy Cheek

Publication date:

11 June 1998

Length of book:

320 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9780847687329

Does market liberalization promote democracy? The accepted answer from scholars, pundits, and politicians alike has been yes. However, the contributors to this innovative study of market reforms and political change in Mexico and the People's Republic of China argue that this easy equation is not only empirically uncertain but methodologically flawed. Using comparative contextual analysis, the contributors carefully identify the elective affinities between these two very different polities to reveal key variables that determine how markets will affect democracy, particularly law as the 'rudder of democracy' and the role of political culture in civil society.

Part 1 Part I: Theoretical Context
Chapter 2 Market Liberalization and Democratization: The Case for Comparative Contextual Analysis
Chapter 3 Market Economics and Political Change: A Historical and Theoretical Examination
Part 4 Part II: Regional Context
Chapter 5 Market-Oriented Reforms and National Development in Latin America
Chapter 6 Socialist Marketization and East Asian Industrial Structure: Locating Civilized Society in China
Part 7 Part III: Judicial System, Civil Society, and Political Culture
Chapter 8 Mexico: Economic Liberalism in an Authoritarian Polity
Chapter 9 Economic and Legal Reform in China: Whither Civil Society and Democratization?
Chapter 10 Civil Society and Democratization in Mexico
Chapter 11 From Market to Democracy in China: Gaps in the Civil Society Model
Part 12 Part IV. Extending the Analysis
Chapter 13 Constructive Engagement and Economic Sanctions: The Debate Over Intervention for Democracy
Chapter 14 Market Liberalization and Democratic Politics: Perspectives from the Russian Experience

A unique undertaking and a delight. By putting Mexico and China side by side and setting the task of comparison in an entirely new context, the editors are able to tackle many of the old questions about political culture, political development, and state-society relations in entirely new and original ways.