China’s e-commerce development tells a story of how, under a strong authoritarian state, non-state-owned startup companies grew rapidly without state support and transformed many aspects of state-society relations. Combining qualitative and quantitative methods, this dissertation makes a vital early attempt to uncover the impact of e-commerce development on China’s state-society relations. It argues that e-commerce development has given rise to 1) a mode of gradual institutional change initiated by societal actors in an authoritarian context, which explains the opening of the Chinese e-commerce businesses to foreign investors; 2) a plurality of avenues for non-state-owned companies to articulate their policy preferences to the central government; and 3) informal workers who experience extensive labor rights violations but rarely resort to worker resistance. Findings from e-commerce development also carry implications for how we revise generally accepted conceptions of the Chinese political economy and the broader Chinese politics. Ownership structure no longer plays a deterministic role in predicting firms’ economic performances and political resources in present-day China. Through entrepreneurial activities, non-state-owned enterprises can grow into leading players in China, measured by both economic and political power, without active state guidance.

Creator

• SHAO, YIXUE

DOI

• https://doi.org/10.21985/n2-njbb-s095

Subject

• Political science

Language

• en

Alternate Identifier

• etdadmin_upload_742274
• http://dissertations.umi.com/northwestern:15088

Keyword

• government-business relations
• institutional change
• Chinese political economy
• informal labor
• e-commerce industry

Date created

• 2020-01-01

Resource type

• Dissertation

Rights statement

• In Copyright