These chapters are structured around a notion of ‘system’ as developed in the system, society and dominance framework (see chapter 2). This notion of ‘system’ does not follow Niklas Luhmann's definition of system as ‘a single mode of operation’ (2006: 37), nor is it tautological in the sense that ‘a system is difference – the difference between system and environment’ (38). Rather, it is used here to mean specifically a system of political economy – capitalism – that is ‘a complicated network of similarities overlapping and criss-crossing: sometimes overall similarities, sometimes similarities of detail’ (Wittgenstein, 1953: 66).

Each of the three countries in which the chapter's studies are located – the Czech Republic, China and Turkey – have recognisably moved towards, or have extended their commitment to, the ‘system’ of capitalism, but there remain differences both within and between these countries. Moreover, what they are becoming differs – though not completely – from what they were. There is historical dependency, but not as the causal determinism of prior conditions. Change is mixed and uneven. For instance, even when the Czech Republic was a ‘socialist’ economy, there were capitalist activities, albeit on a much smaller scale. Now that it is a capitalist economy the power of capital is not unregulated. Anthony Giddens's advocacy of ‘the third way’ supposes that the two alternatives are pure forms. They never were.