China and Islam Flashcards
Bosker et al
European urban development outpaced that of the Islamic world (MENA) because of 1) different main transport modes, where the Middle East mainly used camels compared to Europe’s ships, and the ‘disappearance of the wheel’, and 2) forms of local participatory government in Europe which made cities less dependent on the state and restricted the dominant role of the state.
- a) Europe had navigable rivers, favourable location for Atlantic trade and natural ports; Islamic world had Meditteranean trade, efficient caravan routes by camel and the position as a middleman.
b) Efficiency was low compared to water-based transportation by Europe, which enjoyed innovation in shipbuilding, improved sailing and navigation techniques. - a) Islamic world also unable to develop institutions favouring markets exchange that were independent from the state, with power concentrated and favouring economic interests of a small group of elites.
b) European institutions constrained the power of the states, with the fall of the Carolingian empire leading to cities developing local participatory government and being represented in national policymaking, stimualting economic development
Rubin
Islamic political authorities depended on conforming to the dictates of religious authorities for legitimacy. In Europe, rise of commerce reduced Church ability to legitimise political authorities. When the level of dependence on religious authorities for political legitimacy is low, political authorities have an incentive to relax regulations on productivity-enhancing actions eg. lending at interest
Landes
China could have but did not experience a technological achievement on par with Europe. Failed: 1) to generate sustained scientific and technological advances endogenously and 2) to learn from Europe.
1) Had poor institutions,
a) lacked free market and institutionalised property rights,
b) Chinese state always stepped in to interfere with private enterprise, taking over or prohibiting activities, manipulating prices, taking bribes,
c) tried to ban all trades overseas in Ming Dynasty leading to smuggling and corruption.
VS Europe - fragmentation and national rivalries meant rulers had to pay heed to their subjects.
2) Poor cultural values:
a) large pattern of totalitarian control,
b) weight of previous customs and consensus,
c) reliance on personal and familial collaboration instead of institutional practice.
3) Cultural triumphalism and petty downward tyranny -
a) superior indifference to the West, characterised foreigners as ‘barbarians’ and everyone who followed orders were inferior,
b) emperor was ‘Son of Heaven’,
c) lacked institutions for knowledge eg. schools, academics, values like knowledge, standing on the shoulders of giants
Shiue and Keller
Performance of markets in Western Europe and China were comparable in the late 18th century. Only England performed better in terms of markets. Hence strong market performance may be necessary, but but not sufficient for industrialisation. Rather than being a key condition for subsequent growth, improvements in market performance and growth occurred simultaneously
China definitely did not fail to industrialise not because the state suppressed private economic activity, but maybe because the state did not do enough to support it
Ma
Why did Japan and China’s growth diverge?
Japanese success in silk export due to:
1) capacity of sericultural sector to develop appropriate technology and institutions through traditional technology and modern science to overcome resource constraints,
2) Meiji reform which emulated Europe and built important physical and social infrastructure, allowing science and technology for growth.
Why China fell behind:
1) strength of Chinese bureaucracy and preparation for grueling Civil Service Examination system took most of China’s intellectual energies,
2) rent-seeking elites more entrenched in China, where local officials represented traditional silk weavers and prevented mechanisation,
3) China’s ideological and political responses to the mid-nineteenth-century Western imperialist challenge
Allen et al
Based on ‘welfare ratios’, Asian living standards were on par with Central and Eastern Europe in 18th century; only England and the other Low Countries (Belgium, Netherland etc) had pulled ahead from the rest
Kuran
Explains why the Middle East is economically underdeveloped. Islamic institutions generated institutional bottlenecks -
1) Islamic law of inheritance inhibited capital accumulation,
2) strict individualism of Islamic law and lack of cooperation - hindered organisational development and contributed to keeping civil society weak,
3) Waqf - Islam’s distinct form of trust, introduced as a creative response to the precariousness of private property rights - locked vast resources into organisations which became dysfunctional over time.
These institutions were not disadvantageous at the time, but turned into handicaps as the West developed modern institutions.
Kuran (2)
Social pressures in the Islamic world encouraged individuals to falsify their preferences. In this view, European financial instruments and organisational forms that were known to Muslims could not be discussed and certainly not adopted.
Chaney
Western Islamic world fell far behind Western Europe between 16th and 18th centuries, measured by difference in corsairs and military strength. Why was there a gap between European/Islamic corsairs? 1) difference in technological dynamism and advances; 2) institutional differences - increased European state capacity. Agoston (2005) - “was not better guns that ultimately gave the advantage to the Europeans, but better drill, command and control, and bureaucratic administration’; Islamic institutions hampered development. Need to understand why such states emerged in the first place
