For many decades, we are witnessing the economic rise of China and the increasing integration of China into existing international economic institutions. However, this paper argues that prevalent international relations theories are insufficient to explain this conjuncture of international political economy. Instead, this paper proposes the theory of uneven and combined development (UCD) to further integrate the international dimension of historical unevenness that is resulting from the historical conditions of global capitalism. The argument of this paper proceeds in two steps: First, the liberal, realist and orthodox Marxist theories’ analytical assumptions are discussed to understand the rise of China and its integration into international economic institutions, mainly the World Trade Organization. Second, the UCD theory is applied to reveal historical unevenness and intersocietal interactions through global capitalism. It is argued that the historical unevenness both determined the integration of China into international economic institutions and has caused instability within global capitalism through the trade war between US and China.
international political economy, China, US, uneven and combined development, late industrialization
Primary Language | English |
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Subjects | Sociology, International Relations |
Journal Section | Research Articles |
Authors | |
Publication Date | January 31, 2023 |
Submission Date | November 18, 2022 |
Acceptance Date | January 12, 2023 |
Published in Issue | Year 2023 Volume: 7 Issue: 1 |
Lectio Socialis is an international peer-reviewed journal on social sciences, humanities and arts. The journal welcomes articles mainly from the disciplines of economics; political science; public administration; business administration; international relations; urban planning; sociology; psychology; linguistics; literature; history; jurisprudence; philosophy; archaeology; anthropology; comparative religion; ethics; the history, criticism and theory of the arts.
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