Capitalist development, contradictions and crises in China, 1993-2011 : a case study within a theoretical framework for the comparative study of capitalism

After a high growth period, China in 2015 registered the lowest growth rate of the past 25 years. Even though economic development is essential to legitimizing the Communist Party’s authoritarian rule, existing research only exhibits a limited understanding of the fundamental relations and dynamics of Chinese capitalism. The analysis of the Chinese case through a theoretical framework based on Marx’s Capital and Théorie de la Régulation explains how and why the “Socialist Market Economy” has facilitated rapid accumulation before developing certain immanent crisis tendencies. Transcending disciplinary boundaries, the dissertation contributes to an understanding of capitalist development in general, as well as of accumulation and crisis in China in particular. It thus addresses desiderata in social science research on capitalism and China research.