Article contents
Political Change in China – Power, Policy and Process
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 January 2009
Extract
China's politics have changed dramatically during the last decade. Schram, in one of the works which have stimulated this review article, has characterized the period since 1978 as one of ‘Economics in Command’ by way of contrast to the exhortation to put ‘Politics in Command’ – the slogan that dominated the last decade of Mao's life and the era of the Cultural Revolution. The drive to economic modernization has replaced ‘class struggle’ as the main goal of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Political reform has been an essential part of that drive, for in its analysis of the failings of the previous three decades the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has argued that economic growth and development could not occur without political stability and institutionalization.
- Type
- Review Articles
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989
References
1 Schram, S. R., Ideology and Policy in China since the Third Plenum, 1978–84 (London: Contemporary China Institute, 1984).Google Scholar The others are Teiwes, F. C., Leadership, Legitimacy and Conflict in China (London: Macmillan, 1984)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Moody, P. R., Chinese Politics after Mao (New York: Praeger, 1983)Google Scholar; and Maxwell, N. and McFarlane, B., eds, China's Changed Road to Development (Oxford: Pergamon, 1984).Google Scholar
2 The CCP's review of its post-1949 history was formulated in the Resolution on Party History since the Foundation of the PRC adopted by the 6th Plenum of the 11th Central Committee of the CCP in June 1981.
3 For example Womack, B., ed., Media and the Chinese Public (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1986)Google Scholar; and Fan, Li, ‘The Question of Interests in the Chinese Policy Making Process’, China Quarterly, No. 109 (03 1987), p. 64.Google Scholar
4 Friedman, E., ‘The Original Chinese Revolution Remains in Power’, in Cumings, B., ed., China from Mao to Deng (London: M. E. Sharpe, 1983), p. 23.Google Scholar
5 For example: Beauregard, P. de, Canestan, J. P., Domenach, J. L., Godement, F., Goldfiem, J. de and Joyaux, F., La Politique Asiatique de la Chine (Paris: Fondations pour les Études de Défence Nationale, 1986).Google Scholar
6 For example, Blecher, Marc, China: Politics, Economics and Society (London: Pinter, 1986).Google Scholar
7 Nathan, A., Chinese Democracy (London: I. B. Tauris, 1986).Google Scholar
8 For example, Sigal, L. T., ‘On the “Two Roads” and Following our Own Path: The Myth of the “Capitalist Road”’, Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, No. 7 (1982), p. 55Google Scholar, and the responses in the same journal, No. 8.
9 For example: Goldman, M., China's Intellectuals (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1981)Google Scholar; and Joseph, W. A., The Critique of Ultra-Leftism in China, 1958–1981 (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1984).Google Scholar
10 Three seminal works which together reflect the major academic preoccupations ofthat period are: Barnett, A. D., Cadres, Bureaucracy and Political Power in Communist China (New York: Columbia University Press, 1967)Google Scholar; Schram, S. R., The Political Thought of Mao Tse-tung (New York: Praeger, 1963)Google Scholar; and Schurmann, H. F., Ideology and Organization in Communist China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1966).Google Scholar
11 For example, Thornton, R. C., China: The Struggle for Power (London: Indiana University Press, 1973).Google Scholar
12 For example, Chang, P., Power and Policy in China (London: Pennsylvania University Press, 1975)Google Scholar, and Liu, A. P., Political Culture and Croup Conflict in Communist China (Oxford: Clio Books, 1976).Google Scholar
13 For example, Solinger, D., Regional Government and Political Integration in Southwest China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977)Google Scholar, and White, L. T. III, ‘Leadership in Shanghai, 1955–69’, in Scalapino, R., ed., Elites in the People's Republic of China (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1972).Google Scholar
14 For example, Bennett, G., Huadong: The Story of a Chinese People's Commune (Boulder, Colorado: Westview, 1978).Google Scholar
15 For example, Brugger, W., Democracy and Organization in the Chinese Industrial Enterprise (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976).Google Scholar
16 For example, Vogel, E., Canton under Communism (New York: Harper and Row, 1971).Google Scholar
17 Surprise is clearly reflected in the pages of the China Quarterly, No. 27 (09 1966)Google Scholar, and the following issues. For example, Joffe at that time described the GPCR as not so much the ‘titanic struggle’ described by the New York Times of 26 06 1966Google Scholar as a ‘titanic riddle’, in ‘China in Mid-1966: “Cultural Revolution” or Struggle for Power?’, China Quarterly, No. 27 (09 1966), p. 123.Google Scholar
18 For example, Schram, S. R., ‘The Party in Chinese Communist Ideology’, China Quarterly, No. 38 (1967), especially p. 23Google Scholar, where the author discusses reactions to Mao's attack on the CCP.
19 This point is made forcefully by Winckler when, with not a little justice (and hindsight), he indicates the relative success of cyclical explanations. Winckler, E. A., ‘Policy Oscillations in the People's Republic of China: A Reply’, China Quarterly, No. 68 (12 1976), p. 734.Google Scholar
20 For example: Wakeman, F., History and Will (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973).Google Scholar
21 Nathan, A., ‘Policy Oscillations in the People's Republic of China: A Critique’, China Quarterly, No. 68 (12 1976), pp. 730–1Google Scholar
22 See, for example, Fleron, F., ed., Communist Studies and the Social Sciences (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1969).Google Scholar
23 Wheelwright, E. L. and McFarlane, B., The Chinese Road to Socialism (Harmondsworth, Middx: Penguin, 1973), p. 126.Google Scholar
24 For example: Maitan, L., Party, Army and Masses in China (London: New Left Books, 1976).Google Scholar
25 One account that does seem to believe it is presenting a pluralist alternative is Ting, W., ‘Coalitional Behavior among the Chinese Military Elite: A Nonrecursive, Simultaneous Equations, and Multiplicative Causal Model’, American Political Science Review, 73 (1979), 478–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar One which most definitely does not is Domes, J., The Internal Politics of China (London: Hurst, 1973).Google Scholar
26 Nathan, , ‘Policy Oscillations in the People's Republic of China’, pp. 724–7.Google Scholar
27 Pye, L., ed., Political Science and Area Studies: Rivals or Partners? (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1975).Google Scholar
28 Skilling, H. G., ‘Soviet and Communist Politics: A Comparative Approach’, Journal of Politics, 22 (1960), 300–13CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Tucker, R. C., ‘Towards a Comparative Politics of Movement Regimes’, American Political Science Review, 55 (1961), 281–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
29 In addition to the more obvious economic and statistical yearbooks, there are those of more direct relevance to political studies, as for example, the Zhongua renmin gongheguo xingzhen quhua jiance [PRC Handbook of Administrative Areas] (Beijing: Ministry of Civil Affairs), and the Zhongguo baike nianjian [The China Almanac] (Beijing: The Chinese Almanac Publishing House).
30 Data for 1971, 1977 and 1980 are taken from Almanac of China's Economy, 1981 (Hong Kong: Modern Cultural Company Limited, 1982) p. 725.Google Scholar
31 The World Bank, China: Long-Term Development Issues and Options (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1985).Google Scholar
32 Yahuda, M., The New Social Sciences in China (London: Macmillan, 1986).Google Scholar
33 Selden, M., ‘The Logic – and Limits – of Chinese Socialist Development’Google Scholar, in Maxwell, and McFarlane, , eds, China's Changed Road to Development, p. 1.Google Scholar
34 Saich, T., ‘Party Building since Mao – A Question of Style?’Google Scholar, in Maxwell, and McFarlane, , eds, China's Changed Road to Development, p. 149.Google Scholar
35 Goodman, D. S. G., ‘Democracy, Interest and Virtue: The Search for Legitimacy in the PRC’, in Schram, S. R., Foundations and Limits of State Power in China (London: School of Oriental and African Studies, 1988).Google Scholar
36 Watson, A., ‘Agriculture Looks for “Shoes that Fit”: The Production Responsibility System and its Implications’Google Scholar, in Maxwell, and McFarlane, , eds, China's Changed Road to Development, p. 83.Google Scholar
37 Goodman, D. S. G., ‘The Chinese Political Order after Mao: “Socialist Democracy” and the Exercise of State Power’, Political Studies, 33 (1985), p. 218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
38 Ishikawa, S., ‘China's Economic System Reform: Underlying Factors and Prospects’Google Scholar, in Maxwell, and McFarlane, , eds, China's Changed Road to Development, p. 9Google Scholar; and Riskin, C., ‘Market, Maoism, and Economic Reform in China’Google Scholar, in Selden, M. and Lippit, V., The Transition to Socialism in China (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1982), p. 300.Google Scholar
39 Lippit, V., ‘Socialist Development in China’Google Scholar in Selden, and Lippit, , The Transition to Socialism in China, p. 116Google Scholar; and McFarlane, B., ‘Political Economy of Class Struggle and Economic Growth in China, 1950–1982’Google Scholar, in Maxwell, and McFarlane, , eds, China's Changed Road to Development, p. 21.Google Scholar
40 Sweezy, P. M. and Bettelheim, C., On the Transition to Socialism (London: Monthly Review Press, 1971).Google Scholar
41 Chossudovsky, M., Towards Capitalist Restoration? Chinese Socialism after Mao (London: Macmillan, 1986).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
42 Friedman, E., ‘The Original Chinese Revolution Remains in Power’Google Scholar, in Cumings, , ed., China from Mao to Deng, p. 21.Google Scholar
43 Bianco, L., ‘La politica demografica’, in Gibelli, M. C. and Weber, M., eds, Una modernizzazione difficile: Economica e societa in Cina dopo Mao (Milan: Franco Angeli, 1983), p. 159.Google Scholar
44 Cangping, Wu, ‘Zero population growth is the best plan’, in Renmin ribao [People's Daily], 6 04 1987.Google Scholar
45 Teiwes, , Leadership, Legitimacy and Conflict in China, Part III, p. 93.Google Scholar
46 Linz, J. J., ‘Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes’, in Greenstein, F. I. and Polsby, N. W., eds, Handbook of Political Science (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1975), Vol. 3, p. 175.Google Scholar
47 Moody, P. R., Chinese Politics after Mao.Google Scholar
48 See Schram, , Ideology and Policy in China since the Third Plenum.Google Scholar A similar argument is developed in Tsou, Tang, ‘Back from the Brink of Revolutionary-“Feudal” Totalitarianism’, in Nee, V. and Mozingo, D., eds, State and Society in Contemporary China (London: Cornell University Press, 1983), p. 53.Google Scholar
49 For an apparent ‘outside’ account based on this perspective, see Chen, J., Inside the Cultural Revolution (London: Sheldon Press, 1975).Google Scholar
50 Teiwes, , Leadership, Legitimacy and Conflict in China, Part I, p. 10.Google Scholar
51 Solinger, D., ed., Three Visions of Chinese Socialism (Boulder, Colorado: Westview, 1984)Google Scholar. More colourfully, Friedman has referred to these as Titoism, , Maoism, , and Stalinism, , in ‘Some Origins and Consequences of the Maoist Theory of the Socialist Transition’Google Scholar, in Selden, M. and Lippit, V., The Transition to Socialism in China, p. 159.Google Scholar
52 Solinger, D., ‘Economic Reform via Reformulation in China’, Asian Survey, 21 (1981), p. 947.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
53 Lieberthal, K., Central Documents and Politburo Politics in China (Ann Arbor: Michigan Papers in Chinese Studies, 1978).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
54 For example, Tsou, , Blecher, and Meisner, , ‘Policy Change at the National Summit and Institutional Transformation at the Local Level: The Case of Tachai and Hsiyang in the Post-Mao Era’, in Tsou, Tang, ed., Select Papers from the Center for Far Eastern Studies (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1981), No. 4, p. 241.Google Scholar
55 For example, Pye, L., The Dynamics of Chinese Politics (Cambridge, Mass.: Oelgeschlager, Gunn & Hain, 1981)Google Scholar; and Domes, J., Politische Soziologie der Volksrepublik China (Wiesbaden: Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft, 1980).Google Scholar
56 Talbot, S., ed., Khrushchev Remembers (Harmondsworth, Middx: Penguin, 1977), Vol. 2, p. 301.Google Scholar
57 Teiwes, , Leadership, Legitimacy and Conflict in China, p. 48.Google Scholar
58 ‘Zhao's first task is to win over the PLA’, South China Morning Post, 21 01 1987.Google Scholar
- 2
- Cited by