The Limitations of Corporatism for Understanding Reforming China: An empirical analysis in a rural county

This paper challenges the usefulness of the notion of corporatism in conceptualizing the changing state‐society relationship in China. Based on an empirical analysis of the pattern of state‐business interaction in Huantai county, Shandong, it argues that though corporatism may exist in form, it does not exist in essence. The political reality in China differs from the corporatist description on two counts: business organizations do not function as vehicles of effective communication between state and society; and the heterogeneity among managers also hinders the possibility of collective exchange with the state. In other words, uncritical application of a corporatist perspective may firstly, exaggerate the implication of the emergence of social organization and hence misguide further inquiry, and secondly, it may also under-state the diversity within society during the reform process. In short, it may obscure as much as illuminate the dynamic social and political changes inherent in the reform process.