Economic Transition at the Local Level: Diverse Forms of Town Development in China

Abstract

This paper examines China's local transition at the town level as a consequence of the interplay between local factors (e.g., local government activism and actions of peasantsturned workers) and external forces (e.g., regulatory change at the national level and the influx of global, national and local capital). Empirical evidence from five towns demonstrates diverse forms of local economic transition and supports arguments that, as in post-Communist Russia and in Eastern and Central Europe, local conditions in China matter a great deal in social formation and local accumulation. The existing framework of town-based transition (“urbanization from below”) is revised to account for the spectrum of town-based transition in - the last two decades. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: H10, O15, P20. 1 figure, 94 references.