Entrepreneurs as Social Actors : Privatization and Social Change in China and Vietnam - Duisburger Arbeitspapiere Ostasienwissenschaften, 1999,21

by Heberer, Thomas

Analyses of the transformation process in Eastern Europe refer sometimes to a "magic triangle", meaning the development of a market, of "autonomy" (private ownership) and "restructuring". The last term refers to economic adaptation to the market and the formation of an entrepreneurship.1 A similar magic triangle is also the initial stage in the process of social change in China and Vietnam, which has significant consequences for social structures (changes in values, institutions and elites). Taking the new private entrepreneurship as an example, restructuring and its political and social consequences are investigated. Unlike in Eastern Europe, restructuring in China and Vietnam is not a top-down process, but mainly a spontaneous, bottom-up one.