Religion and the Great Divergence of East and West: The Persistent Effects of Networks of Church and State in the History of China and Europe

25 Pages Posted: 14 Dec 2022

See all articles by Hilton L. Root

Hilton L. Root

George Mason University - Schar School of Policy and Government; King’s College London - Department of Political Economy

Abstract

This article explores the contribution of religion to the cultural capital of the modern market economy. Networks of church and state that originated in premodern times played an important role as conduits for the transmission of cultural values that have endured into the present and set the China’s economic history apart from that of Europe. The imprints of those networks, which preceded by at least a millennium the Great Divergence in living standards and GDP, have led to important underlying differences between Chinese and Western market structures and persist in informal constraints, i.e., customs, norms, and ethics.

Keywords: Institutions, networks, Economic Organizations, Market Structures, Informal Constraints, Comparison of China and the West

Suggested Citation

Root, Hilton L., Religion and the Great Divergence of East and West: The Persistent Effects of Networks of Church and State in the History of China and Europe. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4302151 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4302151

Hilton L. Root (Contact Author)

George Mason University - Schar School of Policy and Government ( email )

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3351 Fairfax Drive, MS 3B1
Arlington, VA 22201
United States

King’s College London - Department of Political Economy ( email )

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London
United Kingdom

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