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Sociology of Development
Historicizing Embedded Autonomy
The Rise and Fall of a Local Developmental State in Dongguan, China, 1978–2015
Zhicao Fang, Ho-fung Hung
Sociology of Development, Vol. 5 No. 2, Summer 2019; (pp. 147-173) DOI: 10.1525/sod.2019.5.2.147
Zhicao Fang
Johns Hopkins University
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Ho-fung Hung
Johns Hopkins University
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  • For correspondence: hofung@jhu.edu
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Abstract

The theory of “embedded autonomy” suggests that a developmental state needs to maintain a balance between autonomy and embeddedness to succeed. This paper argues that such a balance is not stable but contingent on an alignment of local, national, and global factors. With the local developmental state of Dongguan, China, as an example, we see how the global economy's search of low-cost labor and the national government's encouragement of decentralized local growth since the 1980s created a successful, autonomous local state that was benignly embedded in a network of foreign investors and local residents. This balance brought about more than two decades of phenomenal economic growth. However, starting in 2006 both the central and provincial governments shifted their priority from economic growth to industrial upgrading. The central government also adopted a new bureaucratic rotation rule to prevent long tenure of local officials at the same locality. In these new circumstances, Dongguan found itself trapped in the short-sighted vested interests of traditional foreign investors and rentier local residents. The result was stagnation in both economic growth and industrial upgrading. The paper suggests that the reproduction of embedded autonomy cannot be taken for granted, and that embeddedness of the state at one stage of development can become a hindrance to its autonomy at another stage.

  • embedded autonomy
  • China
  • local developmental state
  • Dongguan
  • industrial upgrading
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Vol. 5 No. 2, Summer 2019

Sociology of Development: 5 (2)
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Historicizing Embedded Autonomy
The Rise and Fall of a Local Developmental State in Dongguan, China, 1978–2015
Zhicao Fang, Ho-fung Hung
Sociology of Development, Vol. 5 No. 2, Summer 2019; (pp. 147-173) DOI: 10.1525/sod.2019.5.2.147
Zhicao Fang
Johns Hopkins University
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Search for this author on this site
  • View author's works on this site
  • For correspondence: zfang8@jhu.edu
Ho-fung Hung
Johns Hopkins University
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Search for this author on this site
  • View author's works on this site
  • For correspondence: hofung@jhu.edu

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Historicizing Embedded Autonomy
The Rise and Fall of a Local Developmental State in Dongguan, China, 1978–2015
Zhicao Fang, Ho-fung Hung
Sociology of Development, Vol. 5 No. 2, Summer 2019; (pp. 147-173) DOI: 10.1525/sod.2019.5.2.147
Zhicao Fang
Johns Hopkins University
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Search for this author on this site
  • View author's works on this site
  • For correspondence: zfang8@jhu.edu
Ho-fung Hung
Johns Hopkins University
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Search for this author on this site
  • View author's works on this site
  • For correspondence: hofung@jhu.edu
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    • Abstract
    • EMBEDDED AUTONOMY AND LOCAL DEVELOPMENTAL STATES IN CHINA
    • BUREAUCRATIC COMPETENCE AND RAPID ECONOMIC GROWTH, 1978 TO 2005
    • DECLINING EMBEDDED AUTONOMY AND FAILED UPGRADING, 2006 AND BEYOND
    • DONGGUAN'S IMPASSE IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE
    • CONCLUSION
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