Local State Corporatism or Neo-Guanxilism? Observations from the county level of government in China

Chinese economic and social development in the past three decades has been typically state-led, in which capital and government officials are gradually allied through guanxi-a social psychological network that connects individuals with continued exchanges of favours, emotions and resources. This transforms many traditional characteristics of guanxi and encodes it with new features deeply rooted in institutional settings in contemporary China, which we term as neo-guanxilism. Although 'local state corporatism' has strong explanatory power in analysing the alliance of enterprises and local government, we argue that this type of neo-guanxilism could fill the gap uncovered by local state corporatism, mainly through emphasizing government officials as interdependent actors instead of viewing the local state as a collective, capturing not only the developmental but also the predatory aspects of local governments.