ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines an overview of the development of the Chinese private economy. It presents three sociological perspectives that account for the emergence of the private sector and shed light on its implications for the socioeconomic order. The three sociological perspectives are: the market transition perspective, the entrepreneur-bureaucracy connection perspective, and the social roots perspective. Each gives special emphasis to a distinct reason for the emergence and development of the Chinese private economy, and each also has implications for the emerging socioeconomic order. Party and state bureaucratic cadres are being transformed from redistributors to regulators or market participants. Private business owners have mobilized a variety of different forms of capital for their businesses. The human capital of private entrepreneurs is very important for their success. Family ties, which can be regarded as a sort of social capital, are most important to private entrepreneurs.
