City Power And State Transition

The emergence and growth of cities have depended on the imposition of man’s will and culture over the forces of his environment; the emergence and growth of States have also attained through this. So there is a close relationship between the two. In the ancient time, Aristotle concerned about the city-state; in the modern time, we concern about global city and nation-state, the form and content of the state are constantly changing with the development of cities. From the beginning of the transition of modern nation-state, the city plays as a unit and vector of the state transition. Although its performance is different in different countries, the logic is consistent, that is, the city is an important factor which promotes and determines the width and depth of the state transition process. The goal of my dissertation is to make a research on the function, carrier and path, which has been brought by the city in the process of state transition.Many researches have focused on the rate of urbanization and regarded it as the typical characteristic of urban development in order to construct the relationship between the city and state transition. We find that urbanization rate is the external representation of the relationship between city and state transition, there is no positive correlation between the two. Although urbanization rate is very high, even accompanied by over-urbanization phenomenon, The state transition of Latin American countries has suffered setbacks in the middle-income trap; Even urbanization rate is low, even accompanied by under-urbanization phenomenon, Mao’s China has suffered a huge crisis in the process of state transition; only the western developed countries realize moderate rate of urbanization which is matching with the industrial development in the process of transformation from a traditional agricultural country to a modern industrial countries. Therefore, we need to find a mechanism which explores the relationship between city and state transition.So the dissertation argues that city power promoting state transition theory provides an academic explanation. City power is a comprehensive modern element which embodies in the urban space; it consists of market factors, institutional factors, power factors and participation factors, the former two play a driving role, the latter two play a control role. Four modes are formed under the action of the four elements:dependent city power promoting state transition mode, predatory city power promoting state transition mode, developmental city power promoting state transition mode, balanceable city power promoting state transition mode.Its performance is different in developed countries and developing ones. For the developed countries, as a result of capital gathering, city power plays as an independent variable which promotes state transition, its main task is to improve the quality and level of urbanization by city power. For the developing countries, the state shapes city power through which the state transition is going on, its main task is fostering healthy power to support and promote the state-building and state transition. So the developing countries must foster healthy city power to ensure a smooth state transition.Finally the dissertation is designed to cover three periods of China’s state transitions, and considers that the case of modern China’s state-building in some extent proves city power promoting state transition theory. It focus on three key historical periods:from the late Qing Empire to the national government period (1840-1937), China’s transition was the dependent city power promoting state transition mode; from the establishment of People’s Republic of China to the Cultural Revolution (1949-1976), China’s transition was the predatory city power promoting state transition mode, after the Reform and Opening Policy, China’s transition is from the developmental city power promoting state transition mode to the balanceable city power promoting state transition mode.