Public-private coordination in large emerging economies: the case of Brazil, India and China

ABSTRACT

Different modes of economic coordination constitute a key aspect of the Comparative Capitalisms research framework. With regard to emerging economies, the close relationship between the state and business has been perceived negatively as an instance of corruption and patrimonialism that are considered to be economically harmful. This paper addresses the puzzle why some large emerging economies – China, India, and Brazil in particular – have seen considerable economic growth since the 2000s despite such 'failures' or 'institutional deficits'. We find strong evidence for a public–private mode of coordination based on reciprocity. This inter-personal mode of coordination helps to explain an unexpected degree of institutional coherence of capitalism, albeit to different degrees, in the large emerging economies under scrutiny. We argue that while there is evidence of economically productive public–private coordination in China and India, economic coordination in Brazil by comparison is much more contested, and thus less beneficial economically.

KEYWORDS:

• State capitalism
• comparative capitalism
• economic coordination
• Brazil
• China
• India

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Christian May is a Research Associate in Political Science and International Relations at Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany. His research focuses on the political economy of emerging economies, in particular Brazil and India, theories of Comparative Capitalism and the International Political Economy of firms and corporations.

Andreas Nölke is full Professor for International Relations and International Political Economy at Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany and external Associate at the Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation at University Warwick, UK. His main research areas are the political economy of emerging economies, the financialization of national economies and the politics of European economic (dis-)integration.

Tobias ten Brink is Professor of Chinese Economy and Society and Director of the China Global Center at Jacobs University Bremen, Germany. His main research areas are global political economy and international relations, China and large emerging countries, comparative politics, institutional analysis and institutional change.

ORCID

Andreas Nölke http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0357-9682

Notes

1 We owe this point to Renato Boschi (private correspondence).

2 This also holds for recent attempts at recentralizing political regulation in China.

3 Recently, positive economic aspects of corruption have been highlighted for the US too as well as the harmful effects of some anti-corruption measures (Matthews, 2014).

4 These negative effects, e.g. are highlighted in the contributions to this Special Issue by Ana Maria Evans for the case of Portugal and by Alexandra Dienes for the case of Russia.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) under [grant number NO 855 3-3] and [grant number TE 1069/6-1].