The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2003

many Europeans react the way they do to their American allies. Paulo Almeida was an FSO from 1985 to 1992, serving in Lisbon, Oporto, Harare and Washington, D.C. Since 1992, he has been an international affairs specialist at the U.S. Environ- mental Protection Agency. It Is Glorious to Be Rich Red Capitalists in China: The Party, Private Entrepreneurs, and Prospects for Political Change Bruce J. Dickson, Cambridge University Press, 2003, $65.00 (hardcover), $23.00 (paperback), 187 pages. R EVIEWED BY D AVID R EUTHER Western political scientists have long noticed that wealth and educa- tion, and a few other variables, corre- late with the development of democra- cy. As Barrington Moore succinctly put it, “no bourgeoisie, no democracy.” Since the late 1980s, scholars have been studying economic reforms and the resurgence of private entrepre- neurs in China. Acknowledging the role of entrepreneurs, the Communist Party accepted businesspersons into its ranks in 2001. Red Capitalists in China: The Party, Private Entre- preneurs, and Prospects for Political Change is based on research Professor Bruce Dickson carried out to test whether these “Red Capitalists” will be agents of future political reform as for- eign liberals assume and Chinese con- servatives fear. He conducted surveys in 1997 and 1999 of entrepreneurs and Chinese government officials in eight widely scattered counties. These counties were chosen to represent a variety of economic circumstances from robust markets to struggling backwaters. Part of the survey had been used in Taiwan, where it demonstrated that entrepre- neurs were indeed agents for political change. The survey results make clear that today’s Red Capitalists come from a variety of backgrounds. Some are Communist Party officials who quit the party to start a business, some are self-made entrepreneurs. On the emerging belief structure of Chinese entrepreneurs, the survey finds that all engage in some charitable activities, with businesspeople from the poorest counties more supportive of local civic activities than those in richer counties. Dickson concludes that the local entrepreneur is providing common goods that a poorly funded local gov- ernment cannot supply. Crucial to the Western theoretical debate about entrepreneurs and the road to pluralism and democracy is their ability to influence government policy. So the survey queried entre- preneurs and officials on the efficacy of business organizations, examining whether these associations are respon- sive to businesspeople or merely organs of control by the Leninist authorities. Strikingly, almost 70 per- cent of the businesspeople believe business associations can influence policy, whereas 75 percent of the gov- ernment officials responded that busi- ness associations cannot influence pol- icy. The survey also indicates that the likelihood of a convergence of inter- ests between the state and business associations rises with economic development. Entrepreneurs in the most developed counties were much more likely to agree that their business associations represented the govern- ment’s point of view than those in the less developed counties. Western political theory assumes that the entrepreneur seeks autonomy in his dealings with the state and that achievement of autonomy is part of the path to political change. In reality, in market economies we often see Western businesses establish govern- ment affairs offices to engage in influ- ence peddling and attempt to influ- ence policy. Prof. Dickson’s survey suggests that contrary to theory, increased embeddedness, not greater autonomy, is the current preferred path for the successful businessper- son. He concludes that these shared interests make it “less likely that entre- preneurs will serve as agents of politi- cal change…” That conclusion may be prema- ture. For one thing, at this stage in China’s development, government policy is decidedly business-friendly, so there is little incentive for friction. In addition, Dickson’s data indicates that entrepreneurs strongly favor the government’s policy of more transpar- ent laws and regulations instead of the traditional Chinese personalized way of doing business. One pending test of the current business-government relationship will be China’s implementation of its WTO responsibilities. We can expect Chinese entrepreneurs to support WTO rules which, in their eyes, help the economy to grow—but if the gov- ernment, or the local entrepreneurs, want to be more protectionist, there may come a parting of the ways, open- ing a new path to political change. All in all, Dickson’s findings will be disconcerting to those who seek to portray China in totalitarian terms and confounding to those Chinese conser- vatives and Western liberals who want to label the Red Capitalists a prima facie agent of change. ■ David Reuther, a retired Foreign Service officer, is a member of the AFSA Governing Board. 70 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J U LY- A U G U S T 2 0 0 3 B O O K S