The Political Economy of Business Associations in Contemporary China

This research reveals how the differentiated relation between business associations and authoritarian state and the systematic organizational variations are configurated by local political economy, and argues the political significance of business associations in authoritarian state should be located in the specific political economic structure. This research displays recent development of business associations' political role in transitional China, and identify the conditions that facilitate organizational social interest pursuits to be successfully inputted into authoritarian state.;On the one hand, this research discusses the institutional bases which motivate the local authoritarian state to maintain continuing domination over society. Both the fiscal institution driving local state to expand revenue incomes and the bureaucratic promotion institution driving officials to accumulate political achievements motivate the local government to achieve following benefits from penetrating and dominating business associations: extract money from society, provide public goods, and facilitate the governance functions. On the other hand, the specific developmental pattern of local market economy actually has deepened the fragmentations among emerging private entrepreneurs instead of remedying them, which further discourage the associational cohesion of business associations. The big, middle, and small private entrepreneurs are characterized by essentially different interactions with the local government and diversified interest pursuits. However, the current associational arrangements forcing these interest pursuits into one single association do harm to the formation of organizational cohesion and the possibility of successful interest intermediation.;This research regards the relations between business associations and authoritarian state as the result of interactions between the governmental penetration and the associational cohesion. Four types can be identified from the empirical cases studies, the corporatist type, the oppositional type, the dominated type, and the clientelistic type. Both the corporatist type and oppositional type can transfer collective interest pursuits into the polity through their leverages on the governments' benefits. However, whichever type do not embody themselves as stable institutional arrangements, but as the contingent negotiations on practical interests. Through the process of depoliticized political integration, contemporary business associations in China contribute to the stability of the authoritarian regime.;After clarifying the mechanism how local political economy configurates the characteristics of business associations, one reasonable hypothesis should be that business associations' characteristics should vary with the local political economy's characteristics. Considering the hierarchical governmental structure's prominent role in shaping politics, this research then concerns its influence on the political performance of business associations. Based on Logistic regression models, this research identifies the determinants contributing to business associations' political influence in contemporary China. The statistical model reveals following patterns: (1) business associations from the higher level get more political opportunities than those from the lower level; (2) business associations from the higher level are more likely influential on policy decisions than those from lower level. These variations indicate that in the national politics the business associations in contemporary China exert most significant institutional political influence.;Keywords Business associations Civil society Corporatism Hierarchical variation Depoliticized political integration.