State-Business Relations

In Precarious Ties: Business and the State in Authoritarian Asia (Oxford University Press, 2023) and related papers, I examine the political foundations and economic effects of different patterns of state-business relations in authoritarian regimes with a focus on China, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The book distinguishes between mutual alignment, when the interests of business and the state are mostly aligned with each other and with efforts toward economic growth, and mutual endangerment, when business elites adapt to distrust and vulnerability by impressing one another and political elites into dangerous relationships that have negative effects on society and economic stability. I show that mutual endangerment manifests in asset expatriation, financial malfeasance, and weaponization of information, or kompromat.