Introduction

Summary

This book examines the role of law through four decades of market reforms in China. It employs two layers of analysis: a market development macro layer and a corporate governance and capital market micro layer. The macro layer, Part II, establishes the analytical framework. It shows how the law translates and secures political–economic power dynamics within the Party-state system. Examining the evolving functions of law through the eras of market reform, the analysis shows how the law supports the Party-state’s efforts to strike a delicate balance between its needs and desires for macro control, the interests of hierarchies within the Party-state system, and the market, thereby configuring China’s unique socialist market economy. The micro layer, Part III, implements the framework. It digs deep into corporate governance and the Chinese capital market and considers how law and political economic determinants entwine in shaping the business environment in which public firms operate.

Drawing on a chronological study of an extensive archive of governance documents issued by organs of the Chinese Party-state since economic reforms began in 1978 until the present, the book sheds a new light on a long-standing debate about the role of law in China’s economic development and about the possible varieties of growth-supporting governance institutions.