One Way to Block Reforms: Capture the Lawyers

From p. 23 of Richard McGregor’s 2010 book The Party: The Secret World of China’s Communist Rulers:

“About one-third, or 45,000, of the 150,000 registered lawyers in China as of May 2009, were party members. Nearly all law firms, about 95 percent, had party committees, which assessed lawyers’ pay not just according to their legal work, but to their party loyalty as well. Far from being a weakness, the Party considers its penetration of the legal system to be a core strength.”

Economists often write of regulatory capture, in which regulated industries capture the agencies that regulate them, and use that relationship to feather their each other’s nests. It turns out this can also happen in the opposite direction, and governments can capture industries.