Search

Neoliberalism became a mainstream concept in the field of international political economy for more than forty years. Starting from the 1970s, Western countries and later the rest of the world started to question the role of the state in the market. As a result, under the new ideas of neoliberalism, governments transformed from providers of public welfare into promoters of the free market and competition among individuals. Under neoliberalism, we are living in the world of free market and liberalization of trade and capital. Neoliberalism is associated with the Western countries and their ideology of democracy and freedom. Thus, the economic model of China that has experienced a spectacular growth after the 1990s was considered by a number of scholars as a more egalitarian and humane alternative to the Anglo-Saxon model of capitalism. The aim of the thesis is to analyze Chinese development path and compare it with the development path of the neoliberal model peculiar to the Western countries. The main hypothesis of the thesis is that the economic model implemented in China cannot be considered as an alternative to neoliberalism. The Chinese government implemented a number of neoliberal principles and ideas in order to achieve economic development and become part of the international economy. Thus, China did not create an alternative development model to Western neoliberalism. The main argument of this thesis is that Chinese development strategy should be understood as “neoliberalism with Chinese characteristics”. Keywords: Neoliberalism, Washington Consensus, China, Beijing Consensus, Globalization ÖZ: Neoliberalizm, kırk yıldan fazla bir süredir uluslararası politik ekonomi alanında temel kavram haline geldi. 1970'lerden başlayarak, Batılı ülkeler ve dünyanın geri kalanı devletin piyasadaki rolünü sorgulamaya başladı. Sonuç olarak, neoliberalizmin yeni fikirleri çerçevesinde devletler kamu refahının sağlayıcısı kurumlardan serbest piyasayı ve bireyler arasında rekabeti destekleyen kurumlara dönüşmüştür. Neoliberalizm altında serbest piyasa ve ticaretin ve sermayenin serbestleştiği bir dünyada yaşıyoruz. Neoliberalizm, Batı ülkeleriyle ve onların demokrasi ve özgürlük ideolojileriyle bağlantılandırılmıştır. Bu nedenle 1990lardan sonra muazzam bir büyüme yakalayan Çin Halk Cumhuriyeti'nin uyguladığı ekonomik model, muhtelif araştırmacılar tarafından Anglo-Saxon kapitalizm modeline daha eşitlikçi ve insani bir alternatif olarak görülmüştür. Bu tezin amacı, Çin’in izlediği kalkınma rotasını Batı ülkelerine özgü neoliberal kalkınma rotasıyla karşılaştırmaktır. Tezin temel hipotezi, Çin’de uygulanan ekonomik modelin neoliberalizme bir alternatif olarak görülemeyeceğidir. Çin hükümeti, ekonomik kalkınmayı sağlamak ve uluslararası ekonominin bir parçası olmak için muhtelif neoliberal prensipler ve fikirler uygulamıştır. Dolayısıyla, Çin, Batı neoliberalizmine alternatif bir gelişme modeli oluşturmadı. Bu tezin temel argümanı, Çin’deki kalkınma stratejisinin “Çin’e ait özelliklerle belirlenen bir neoliberalizm” olarak anlaşılması gerektiğidir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Neoliberalizm, Washington Konsensüsü, Çin, Pekin Konsensüsü, Küreselleşme Master of Arts in International Relations. Thesis (M.A.)--Eastern Mediterranean University, Faculty of Business and Economics, Dept. of International Relations, 2019. Supervisor: Assist. Prof. Dr. Umut Bozkurt.

The purpose of the present paper is to analyze whether the expansion of the Chinese economy is based on an export-led growth effect or, on the contrary, Chinese development between 1964 and 2004 was driven by investment. However, since we know the relevance of the real exchange rate in an open economy such as China, we also investigate the relationship between the real exchange rate and growth. Our empirical evidence shows that both investment and exports are relevant factors in the Chinese economy. These results are consistent with the idea that not only are exports the main engine of growth, as other papers have argued, but it also seems that the significant investment effort has played a key role in accounting for China’s growth in the last few decades. Furthermore, unlike previous works, we find that the real exchange rate has been used as an additional economic policy to encourage output in the long run.