Leninist Corporatism and the State We're In
A dismal assessment of 'rising China' by Britian's leading economist, Will Hutton. Being merely an excerpt from a book, the article lacks detail, but Hutton's basic concern is that the system cannot hold. We shall see.
Power, corruption and lies | Extracts | Guardian Unlimited Books
The truth is that China is not the socialist market economy the party describes, nor moving towards capitalism as the western consensus believes. Rather it is frozen in a structure that I describe as Leninist corporatism - and which is unstable, monumentally inefficient, dependent upon the expropriation of peasant savings on a grand scale, colossally unequal and ultimately unsustainable. It is Leninist in that the party still follows Lenin's dictum of being the vanguard, monopoly political driver and controller of the economy and society. And it is corporatist because the framework for all economic activity in China is one of central management and coordination from which no economic actor, however humble, can opt out.
