ABSTRACT
Business associations are an important indicator to observe political consequences of market reform and political potential of the rising entrepreneurial class, since it is believed that capitalist development would transform the state-society relations in favor of the growth of a civil society, which is beneficial to democracy (Whyte, 1992; White, 1993; also see Dickson 2003 for a review). This chapter thus compares different practices of business associations in the two regions: top-down business associations in Sunan and bottom-up business associations in Wenzhou. In Sunan, like in many other regions, business associations are mainly organized and run by government in a top-down manner, and have shied away from allowing entrepreneurs a major role. In Wenzhou, by contrast, many grass-roots business associations initiated and governed by entrepreneurs emerged. These associations in Wenzhou are playing active roles in both the economic and political arenas.
