Allies of the State

"Allies of the State is a finely tuned laser of a book. With a rigorous yet elegant research design deployed with great dexterity, the argument unfolds in tantalizing layers, as Chen and Dickson get us closer than ever to understanding the political attitudes and behavior of China's private entrepreneurs."uScott Kennedy, author of The Business of Lobbying in China

"In a nuanced analysis, Chen and Dickson study the role of private businessmen in China in supporting democratic change. They show that private entrepreneurs, with close ties to the state and the communist party, largely support the Chinese communist political system, but the support is not unconditional. The authors' survey of private entrepreneurs is original in covering five important provinces and unique in capturing the regional differences that affect the business-government relationship. This significant contribution tells us a great deal about the attitudes of private businessmen in China toward democratizing changes and the government system."uDwight H. Perkins, Harvard University

Jie Chen And Bruce Dickson draw on extensive fieldwork as they explore the extent to which China's private sector supports democracy, surveying more than 2,000 entrepreneurs in five coastal provinces with over 70 percent of China's private enterprises.

The authors examine who the private entrepreneurs are, how the party-state shapes this group, and what their relationship to the state is. China's entrepreneurs are closely tied to the state through political and financial relationships, and these ties shape their views toward democracy. While most entrepreneurs favor multi-candidate elections under the current one-party system, they do not support a system characterized by multiparty competition and political liberties, including the right to demonstrate. The key to regime support lies in the capitalists' political beliefs and their assessment of the government's policy performance. China's capitalists tend to be conservative and status-quo oriented, not likely to serve as agents of democratization.

This is a valuable contribution not only to the debates over the prospects for democracy in China but also to understanding the process of democratization around the globe.

Jie Chen is Louis I. Jaffe Professor of Chinese Politics at Old Dominion University.
Bruce J. Dickson is Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, George Washington University.