Economics: Government Roles and Relationships, Making Policies

Examine the government's role and relationship within the private sector in China, the government's role in globalization, and how "other" options the government should consider when making decisions concerning our environment.

Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics: Entrepreneurship and the State (BOOK): by Yasheng Huang

"Yasheng Huang is an insightful scholar of China's political economy. In this important book, he shows how China's rural economy took off in the 1980s, led by 'township and village enterprises' that were essentially private, only to be ignored in the 1990s by state-led development that focused on urban regions such as Shanghai. The 'Shanghai miracle,' he argues - and as any businessman who has worked there knows - was not the simple triumph of capitalism, but of a stronger and more intrusive (and effective) state. If one wants to understand the policy origins of China's growing divide between rich and poor, urban and rural, one need look no further than this book."—William Kirby, Harvard University

"Sure to generate a lively debate, Professor Huang's study provides a provocative and well-researched challenge to much current thinking on China's economic development. The widely shared gains of the 1980s have not been matched in more recent years. Danger signs include the stagnation in household incomes, growing inequality and illiteracy, and heightened governance problems. Huang argues that China will not be able to continue to grow unless the benefits of growth are widely shared through fundamental political and legal reforms."—Susan Rose-Ackerman, Yale Law School

Globalization and the Race to the Bottom in Developing Countries: Who Really Gets Hurt? (BOOK): by Nita Rudra

"With this very impressive book combining sophisticated quantitative analysis with subtle national case studies, Rudra confirms her place in the vanguard of scholars working on how politics mediates the effects of globalization in the developing world. Her focus on the importance of organized labor-government interactions and on the plight of the middle class outside the OECD is a welcome corrective to the simplistic mud slinging that all too often characterizes the globalization debate."—Geoffrey Garrett, Chief Executive Officer of the United States Studies Centre and Professor of Political Science, University of Sydney

Plan C: Community Survival Strategies for Peak Oil and Climate Change (BOOK): by Pat Murphy

Plan C explores the risks inherent in trying to continue our energy-intensive lifestyle. Using dirtier fossil fuels (Plan A) or switching to renewable energy sources (Plan B) allows people to remain complacent in the face of potential global catastrophe. Dramatic lifestyle change is the only way to begin to create a sustainable, equitable world. The converging crises of Peak Oil, climate change, and increasing inequity are presented in a clear, concise manner, as are the twin solutions of community (where cooperation replaces competition) and curtailment (deliberately reducing consumption of consumer goods). Plan C shows how each person’s individual choices can dramatically reduce CO2 emissions. It offers specific strategies in the areas of food, transportation, and housing. One chapter analyzes the decimation of the Cuban economy when the USSR stopped oil exports in 1990 and provides an inspiring vision for a low-energy way of living.

Wealth into Power: The Communist Party's Embrace of China's Private Sector (BOOK): by Bruce J. Dickson

"Wealth into Power provides a penetrating analysis of the complex relationship between the Chinese Communist Party and China's thriving private sector. In this ground-breaking study of the political orientations, social backgrounds, and survival strategies of Chinese private entrepreneurs, Bruce Dickson shows that China's new capitalists, far from becoming a driving force for democratic change, have become part of the authoritarian order. By challenging the conventional wisdom about the relationship between economic development and democratization, Dickson presents a sobering political reality that has often been missed in the current discourse on China's future."—Minxin Pei, senior associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and author of China's Trapped Transition