Corsi di Studio del Dipartimento di Culture, Politica e Società

This course will employ a multidisciplinary approach combining political economy, history, sociology, and political science to analyse the socio-economic transformation of China from the beginning of the 19th century up to the most recent years. There are no prerequisites either in economics (the course will not use any mathematical materials), sociology, or political science to attend this course. Sound background in history, international relations and economic history of the 19th and 20th century will help to fully benefit from this course. Several documents (readings, videos, radio programs) will be made available online before each class on the moodle platform to complement the contents of the course.

This course aims to

 - equip students with good analytical and multidisciplinary tools to analyse the failure of China’s modernization drive in the 19^th and first half of the 20^th century, and to assess the rise of People’s Republic of China (PRC) in the second half of the 20^th century;

 - encourage students to overcome a Eurocentric view of world history and economic development;

 - enable students to analyse and understand economic and social development through a multidisciplinary approach. The case of China will serve as an example to discuss the theories of development proposed by mainstream economic literature.

At the end of the course, students will be expected to have a good grasp on the political and socio-economic transformations that China has experienced through the 19^th and 20^th century, with a special focus on the post-1978 phase, when China launched its "Opening and Reform Policy".

Students will be requested to demonstrate sound understanding of how the PRC has been able to catch up with the most advanced industrialized countries in the last quarter of the 20^th century after several failed attempts since the mid 19^th century. They will need to show awareness of the major socio-political and economic challenges that the PRC is experiencing nowadays, and of the main implications for the rest of the world of China’s rise as an economic and political major actor at the regional and global level.

 Lectures will be held in English.

 Several documents (readings, videos, radio programs) will be made available online before each class on the moodle platform to complement the contents of the course.

 

 Students will be required to write an essay counting for 80% of the final mark. A choice of three questions related to the content of the course will be proposed to the students, who are required to answer to one question. 20% of the final mark will be awarded depending on the quality of oral participation by the student during the classes.

Students who cannot attend classes or opt for the status of non-attending students will be evaluated solely by means of a written examination on the following three books:  Jonathan D. Spence, The search for Modern China, Norton, 1991; Scott Kennedy, State and Market in Contemporary China, Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2016 (available at https://www.csis.org/node/352513); Ezra F. Vogel, Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2011.

 Students are recommended to attend the TOChina Spring Seminars series: www.tochina.it/springseminars

The 54 hours of classes will be divided in five sections:

1. The quest for political and economic modernization in China (1840-1978)

 2. The first stage of reforms (1978 -1992)

 3. The great 1992 compromise: the emergence of China’s own brand of authoritarian state capitalism and the transformation of Chinese society

 4. The internationalization of the Chinese economy and society

 5. Assessing future developments and challenges for China

 

 Important note: these books are not to be read entirely by the students. Specific chapter(s) will be indicated during the course to complement the classes

 - Loren Brandt and Thomas G. Rawski (eds.), China's Great Economic Transformation, (Series Eds), Cambridge University Press, 2008.

 - Frank Dikötter, The Tragedy of Liberation 1945 - 1957, Bloomsbury Press, 2014.

 - Scott Kennedy, State and Market in Contemporary China, Center for Strategic & International Studies, 2016 (available at https://www.csis.org/node/35251).

 - Atul Kohli, State-directed development: political power and industrialization in the global periphery, Cambridge University Press, 2004.

 - Richard McGregor, The party: the secret world of China's communist rulers, Allen Lane, 2010.

 - Barry Naughton, Growing out of the Plan Chinese Economic Reform 1978 -1993, Cambridge University Press, 1995.

 - Carl Riskin, China's Political Economy. The Quest for Develoment since 1949, Oxford University Press, 1987.

 - Jonathan D. Spence, The search for Modern China, Norton, 1991.

 - Kellee S. Tsai, Capitalism without Democracy, Cornell University Press, 2007.

 - Ezra F. Vogel, Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2011.