Dynamic Authoritarianism: Market Pathways in China & Russia Telecommunications

This paper examines the ideational, institutional, and structural foundations of the development of the Internet Communications Technology (ICT) in China and Russia.  Existing scholarship debates the relative impact of industrial and coalitional interests, global market and ideational forces, and political regime type on the state and market nexus in development outcomes.  This paper contends that as developing countries simultaneously industrialize and globalize, market governance structures underpin the relationship between globalization and development.  It shows that strategic value and institutional logics interact to shape national and within-country sector variation in patterns of market governance.  Structural sectoral characteristics affect governance details.  Longitudinal national and sectoral case studies, based on onsite semi-structured, in-depth interviews with companies, central and local government officials, business and industry associations, and international delegations, of the nature of market coordination and distribution of ownership types across telecommunications subsectors in China and Russia substantiate these arguments.  All countries confront globalization, but the values and identities of political economic elites and existing organization of institutions dictate national sector-specific paths, with consequences for development.