ABSTRACT
Conventional notions of entrepreneurship are infrequently applied to government behaviour and, as Gordon White pointed out in the paper cited above, are even further removed from discussions of social welfare provision. The concept of entrepreneurship, rooted as it is in the analysis of economic behaviour in the context of competitive markets, contrasts with behaviour conventionally associated with public sector managers or with those responsible for welfare provision. The Chinese experience may however provide counter examples-of entrepreneurial local governments and of ‘welfare entrepreneurship’. In post-Mao China, there is considerable evidence that government officials exhibit the characteristics of entrepreneurs in directly engaging with business as well as indirectly facilitating market development. Furthermore, wealth thus created is in certain circumstances used to fulfil the more traditional roles of government
The author is at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex (on leave) and Ford Foundation, Beijing. This contribution arises from research initiated jointly with Gordon White who was and remains, through his work, a remarkable source of ideas and inspiration. She is grateful to Robert Benewick and Lu Yuelai for valuable comments on an earlier version.
