Social Autonomy and Market Reform: Explaining Divergent Development Trajectories in China

Chudie Gu, University of Virginia

Why does the pattern of Chinese market reforms differ in terms of industrialization and marketization across regions that share similar political structures and cultural backgrounds? Existing theories tend to attribute this variation either to centralized state control or the dynamics of local leadership, often underemphasizing the role of societal differences in shaping reform trajectories. This paper draws on historical data from two contiguous counties in an eastern coastal province to contribute to the literature on economic sociology and development. First, it theorizes why some counties advanced more rapidly during the initial stages of market reform, even when information about the reform process remained ambiguous. I argue that the variation stems from differing state-society relations at the local level, which shaped how reforms were interpreted and implemented. Second, the paper highlights how divergent patterns of collaboration between political and economic power—whether aligning with local elites or engaging broader social groups—produced distinct emphases on industrialization versus marketization. By focusing on county-level comparison, this study advances our understanding of the micro-sociological foundations of China’s market reforms, demonstrating how local social autonomy and policy-making processes influence development outcomes.

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 Presented in Session 176. Markets and Money in State-Society Relations