The Making of an Economic Superpower: Unlocking China's Secret of Rapid Industrialization

The rise of China is no doubt one of the most important events in world economic history since the Industrial Revolution. Mainstream economics, especially the institutional theory of economic development based on a dichotomy of extractive vs. inclusive political institutions, is highly inadequate in explaining China's rise. This book argues that only a radical reinterpretation of the history of the Industrial Revolution and the rise of the West (as incorrectly portrayed by the institutional theory) can fully explain China's growth miracle and why the determined rise of China is unstoppable despite its current "backward" financial system and political institutions. Conversely, China's spectacular and rapid transformation from an impoverished agrarian society to a formidable industrial superpower sheds considerable light on the fundamental shortcomings of the institutional theory and mainstream "blackboard" economic models, and provides more-accurate reevaluations of historical episodes such as Africa's enduring poverty trap despite radical political and economic reforms, Latin America's lost decades and frequent debt crises, 19th century Europe's great escape from the Malthusian trap, and the Industrial Revolution itself.

Contents:

• Introduction
• Key Steps Taken by China to Set Off an Industrial Revolution
• Shedding Light on the Nature and Cause of the Industrial Revolution
• Why is China's Rise Unstoppable?
• Wha's Wrong with the Washington Consensus and the Institutional Theories?
• Case Study of Yong Lian: A Poor Village's Path to Becoming a Modern Steel Town
• Conclusion: A New Stage Theory of Economic Development

Readership: Academics, undergraduate and graduates students, journalists and professionals interested in economic development, the history of the Industrial Revolution, and especially China's economic transformation and industrial growth, as well as the political economy of governance.
Key Features:

• Gives a detailed account of China's secret of setting-off an industrial revolution
• Uses China's experience to shed light on the long-standing puzzle of the English Industrial Revolution itself
• Provides a new conceptual framework to understand economic development and poverty traps