Blending the state-market binary: Uneven growth and spatiality of China’s public-private partnerships under soft budget constraints

Keywords: Chinese Cities, Urbanization, Public-Private Partnerships, Financialization, Neoliberalism
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Sunday
Session Start / End Time: 2/27/2022 02:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/27/2022 03:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 6

Abstract

The prevailing literature of neoliberalization is built upon the theoretical coordinate of the state and market as unambiguous “fire-and-water” antipodean formulations. Existing research of the practicing of public-private partnerships (PPPs) has drawn heightened attention to the global neoliberal imperatives of capital formation in the narrative of the “hollowing out of the state” and “rolling out of the market”. This study examines the uneven growth and spatiality of the practicing of China’s PPPs in recent decade. The growing popularity of PPPs in China has been the direct consequence of an increased exposure to the global forces of neoliberalization and financialization. Yet the fashionable practicing of PPPs is found to be prominent not in the cities and regions with a mature market and advanced economy but instead in some backward and remote areas where the degree of marketization and openness is low and the legacy of state socialism remains high. Results of multi-variate modeling suggest that the spatial variation of China’s PPPs is significantly correlated with neither the degree of marketization nor the level of fiscal pressure but instead the socialist legacy of soft budget constraints. The functioning of soft budget constraints, through which local governments manipulate PPPs, is found to be shaped by and contingent upon the diverse local conditions characterized by different location, population density, level of economic development, degree of transparency, and inter-regional competition. Findings of this research question the popular theoretical perception regarding the state and market as clear-cut and bipolar socio-economic formulations.