Organizer and Chair: Thomas Heberer, University of Trier, Germany
Discussant: Irene Norlund, Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, Copenhagen
In contrast to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, China and Vietnam followed their own gradualist path of economic change without attempting to introduce radical political reforms. The overall political goal was (and still is) to maintain political stability while promoting economic liberalization. Since one of the driving forces behind the economic development at grass-root level are the private entrepreneurs this change is bottom-up oriented. However, the process of economic change and especially the privatization process developed its own dynamics leading to sociopolitical change in both countries that was neither foreseen nor intended at the outset of the reform processes. Though there are significant similarities between both countries, their respective development of privatization is not an identical one and may lead to different outcomes of the reform processes.
The papers of the panel address four core questions of the processes of change in China and Vietnam: (1) What role do the entrepreneurs play in the processes of change? (2) Does the private entrepreneur constitute a new social stratum or even class? (3) What are the main characteristics of this new stratum (class)? (4) How do state and society react at national and local level to these processes of change? The papers are mainly based on extensive field research.
Thomas Heberer, University of Trier, Germany
At present there are two basic tendencies having a tremendous impact on social change in China: privatization (from below), and economization of politics. The economic reforms caused a fundamental change in the structure of ownership, private economic activities being the pivot. At present there might be at least 250 million people working in the private sector (about 40 % of the workforce). And this figure does not include all kinds of mixed forms and state and collective enterprises quasi-run privately as well as letting and leasing.
The rural large-scale private entrepreneurs mainly consist of former officials, technicians and skilled workers, persons with a relatively high standard of education or experience as well as persons having close personal relations to officials. A considerable part of the private entrepreneurs are party members. Though there are regional and branch differences, these businessmen are the nucleus of a future middle strata. This privatization facilitates the process of change and by that the "quiet revolution from below." This process does not automatically lead to a breakdown of the political system, but erodes it in its present form. In this context the decisive question is whether a middle class will be formed out of this new economic elite that might direct economic and political changes and thus be at the head of a process of democratization. There is hope that in the long-run, a process of democratization will be started by market development, private economy, more autonomy of the society towards the state, the change of elites, the rise of independent interest groups and the formation of a "middle class." But the Chinese entrepreneurship still is in a status nascendi.
Arno Kohl, University of Trier, Germany
Since the 1980s the marketization and privatization processes in Vietnam caused an evolutionary process of change that started for the main part spontaneously from the economic subsystem and led to structural changes in the social and political subsystem. One of the driving forces of change is that of the private entrepreneurs, whose behavior affect their social environment, thus contributing to or even causing change in behavior and values of the non-entrepreneurial segments of the population. Since this occurs at many places simultaneously, the process of change at micro level intensifies and develops its own uncontrollable dynamics.
With the private entrepreneurs a new social group (class ?) emerges and changes the social stratification in a significant way. Especially the successful entrepreneurs constitute a highly self-confident group. They regard it to be natural that the introduction of the market mechanism does change the structure of the society, leading to the formation of different social groups and resulting in the long run in a capitalist multi-party system. They see socialism and market economy as not compatible.
The economic power and the steady expansion of the private sector put pressure on the political system. The local political elite of cadres and the new economic elite of entrepreneurs are often driven together by their respective interests. Thus the political power of the ruling Communist party and the central government is eroding under the impact of the privatization and marketization processes.
The paper presents the results of field surveys conducted in Vietnam in 1996 and early 1997.
Kristen D. Parris, Western Washington University
The transition from a "command" to a marketized economy in China has given rise to a growing number of private and quasi-private enterprises. While sometimes dismissed as technologically crude, economically marginal, and politically dependent, the private economy is growing in size and significance. Nationally, by 1996, the "non-public" economy accounted for over 14 percent of the GDP, and one in twelve Chinese workers was employed by a private company. In some localities, especially in the east and southeast, private enterprises provide most of the jobs and local revenues. As the private sector has grown, some peasants, teachers, cadres, and workers have taken on new roles as business owners, employers, and taxpayers, that can affect their understandings of what citizenship is and should be.
Citizenship defines the proper relationship between public and private interests and between the state and society and is a crucial category in modern ideologies. The notion of citizenship is used by states to enhance their power and legitimacy and at the same time it becomes the basis for claims against the state and other members of society. The specific prerogatives and responsibilities associated with citizenship, however, vary greatly from place to place.
In this paper, Q methodology is used as the basis for an exploration of the ways in which private business owners in China understand themselves as citizens during this period of rapid change. Private business owners are the focus because they represent a new and important social group in Chinese society and because this group has often been associated with new citizenship claims in other cultural contexts. Rather that offering an explanation of change or variation, this paper seeks to systematically identify and carefully describe variation in subjective orientations toward a key concept among a new and potentially powerful social group.
This paper is based on research done in Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Beijing, and Wuhan from June 1996 to July 1997, and is supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and the Committee for Scholarly Communication with China.
Rolf Herno, Roskilde University, Denmark
This paper seeks to analyze the interaction between the emerging private economic sector and the state apparatus in Vietnam. A bottom-up perspective based on neo-Weberian economic sociology is applied to the relationships between entrepreneurs and local government officials. A discussion of state policies and practices vis-à-vis the private, capitalist sector inspired by Foucault’s notion of "governmentality" represents a top-down perspective. The combination helps identify continuities and disjunctions between the local and national levels.
Prevailing political rationalities at the national level have resulted in a highly ambiguous policy environment with conflicting discourses on the role of the private sector. While private enterprise has been instituted in law, the stress in national politics is on strengthening the capabilities of the state apparatus to enforce "strict state management" of the private sector.
At the local level, relations between businesses and the administration are characterized by clientilism, corruption, and reinterpretations of national policies. "Network capitalism" is used as a short-hand reference to the organization of the economy because informal networks penetrate all aspects of it. Obviously, local practices are far removed from the ideal of state management, although a lot of organizational energy is spent on symbolic adherence to state laws and regulations.
This paper emphasizes that diversity and particularism of local practices spring from the contradictory political rationalities at the national level, which create a room of maneuver for local officials. Post-transition Vietnam represents a unique form of capitalism—perhaps only comparable to that of China.