ABSTRACT
This chapter shares two objectives. For one thing it seek to clarify the concept of multiple modernities, especially the question of what constitutes its common core and what procedures would best enable us to identify that core. This project assumes particular urgency if one takes seriously the premise that the age of Western dominance in the field of modernization is over. Shmuel Eisenstadt, who pioneered the idea of multiple modernities, held that it does not stipulate anything close to Samuel Huntington's relativism. Instead, he argued, it presupposes a common core shared by all the different types of modernity. If we inquire whether non-liberal paths to modernization really are sustainable, the analysis and assessment of the special characteristics of Chinese capitalism plays an exemplary role. The latter differs substantially from both types of capitalism found in Western countries and highlighted by Hall and Soskice in their "varieties of capitalism" approach: the liberal type and the coordinated market economy.
