State–Society Interdependence Model in Market Transition

Based on first-hand field research data, this paper explores the construction of a ‘Farmers’ City’ in Wenzhou in the early 1980s. It studies the actors, their relationships, and the institutions, and proposes a ‘state–society interdependence model’. It concludes that the spontaneous, bottom-up urbanization process initiated by farmers as described in the texts was actually the win–win result of an interactive and interdependent relationship between the farmers and local government. The reasons are: (1) the actors, including the local government, the specialized farmers (zhuanye hu), and the other farmers, collectively owned, controlled, and obtained the resources; (2) in terms of the mobilization-response process, the close patron–client ties between the farmers and local government formed a strong interdependent relationship; and (3) in terms of the institutional reforms, the folk interests and demands were always a reference point for the local government. The farmers and their government were partners, participants, and practitioners in grassroots institutional reform

Business · Economic growth · Economics · Government (linguistics · Grassroots · Interdependence · Local government · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · State (computer science · Urbanization · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Chinese history and philosophy · Public Administration

• Capital with beliefs—a study of charitable donations of private business owners in Wenzhou, China

  Open Access•Yi Zhou, A Hu•The Journal of Chinese Sociology•2015

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