Of Pyramids and Patchworks: The Social Origins of Capitalist Development from Above

• In Event: 238 - Regular Session. Historical Sociology. Large Processes, Big Questions

Abstract

Capitalist economic development has occurred very unevenly, as certain economies began sustained growth relatively early, opening up an increasingly large gap with “lagging” countries. This well-known fact has encouraged much research on the prospects for “lagging” economies to “catch up” to the earlier developers. Japan and Russia in the late nineteenth century were two of the first countries outside of western Europe to experience substantial “catch up” industrialization. They have been seen as paradigmatic cases in which states took the lead in instigating a process of capitalist development “from above.” Research that has led to a substantial upward revision to the dynamic contribution of the rural sectors of both countries to their economic growth suggests a need to reassess the relationship between the “traditional” social structure of rural areas and “state led” industrialization, in order to shed light on the social bases of capitalist development “from above.” This paper undertakes this reassessment and finds that the two states adopted similar reforms and achieved similar aggregate quantitative economic outcomes, but these similar outcomes were reached on the basis of very different social patterns, which can be characterized as “pyramidal” in Japan and “patchwork” in Russia. A key theoretical implication of this paper’s analysis is that state-led capitalist development in Japan and Russia relied on factors very specific to each case, casting doubt on the extent to which capitalism “from above” was a possible trajectory of development except in certain uniquely favorable circumstances.

Author

• Mark Cohen, New York University