New Perspectives On State Socialism In China

Placing Chinese Community Party history in the realm of social history and comparative politics, this text studies the roots of the policy failures of the late Maoist period and the tenacity of the CCP.

These essays present fresh insights into the history of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), from its founding in 1920 to its assumption of state power in 1949. They draw upon considerable archival resources which have recently become available.

Since the Cultural Revolution, data have been uncovered to illuminate that tumultuous decade. In this volume 13 scholars examine the gap between the ideology of the Revolution and the harsh and contradictory reality of its outcome. They focus particularly on the violence, coercion, and constant tension between the need for centralization to enforce policies and the need for decentralizing decision-making if those goals were to be achieved.

How China Became Capitalist details the extraordinary, and often unanticipated, journey that China has taken over the past thirty five years in transforming itself from a closed agrarian socialist economy to an indomitable economic force in the international arena. The authors revitalise the debate around the rise of the Chinese economy through the use of primary sources, persuasively arguing that the reforms implemented by the Chinese leaders did not represent a concerted attempt to create a capitalist economy, and that it was 'marginal revolutions' that introduced the market and entrepreneurship back to China. Lessons from the West were guided by the traditional Chinese principle of 'seeking truth from facts'. By turning to capitalism, China re-embraced her own cultural roots. How China Became Capitalist challenges received wisdom about the future of the Chinese economy, warning that while China has enormous potential for further growth, the future is clouded by the government's monopoly of ideas and power. Coase and Wang argue that the development of a market for ideas which has a long and revered tradition in China would be integral in bringing about the Chinese dream of social harmony.

Probing the relationship between socialism and governance, the author offers a new perspective for understanding Chinese politics since 1949. China's politics can be roughly divided into two periods - the Maoist period (1949-1978) and the Dengist Period (since 1978) - characterized as Revolutionary China and Reformatory China. These two periods are better understood when they are compared with each other. For, to study an epoch, we need a logic that transcends that epoch. A comparative approach is very helpful in uncovering the deeper meaning of Chinese revolution and Chinese reforms. Using the key concept 'two worlds of life' (Experiencing World and Meaning World), the author argues that there is a sharp discrepancy between the two worlds of life in all the self-claimed 'socialist' countries. Although the Meaning World is 'socialist', the Experiencing World cannot be adequately understood as being socialist. 'socialism' has become an ideational veil which masks the true nature of the Experiencing World. After the 'socialist' revolution, the chain of the concept of 'socialism' awaits the proletariat. Only through Entborgenheit can we understand the true nature of the Experiencing World of all 'socialist' states. It is argued that the concept 'real socialism' is still misleading, for such a 'socialism' is still unreal; that the concept 'state socialism' is no more than a confusing concept and needs also to be rejected, for there is not such a thing as state socialism in our experiencing world. We had neither 'real socialism' nor 'state socialism', we had only statism in our experiencing world. The Maoist Chiina was a schizophrenic case of 'socialism', due to the inherent conflict between statism in the Experiencing World and 'socialism' in the Meaning World. All the Communist states created a Janus-faced creature, with one face being statism and the other face being 'socialism'. This is caused by the pathology of treating statization of means of production as socialization of means of production. Dengist China initiated a de-statization process, but this process is not socialization either.

China is huge. China is growing more powerful. Yet China remains a great mystery to most people in the West. This contemporary history, based on the latest scholarly research, offers a balanced perspective of the continuing legacy of Maoism in the lives not only of China's leaders but China's working people. It outlines the ambitious economic reforms taken since the 1980s and shows the complex responses to the consequences of reform in China today. Cheek shows the domestic concerns and social forces that shape the foreign policy of one of the worlds great powers. His analysis will equip the reader to judge media reports independently and to consider the experience and values not only of the Chinese government but China's workers, women, and minorities.

To what extent can contemporary socialist economies be reformed by the introduction of markets? The question is usually debated in either a Chinese or an East European context; this collection of eleven essays is unique in taking the first steps toward a comparative analysis. Twenty years of experience with reforms in Hungary and a decade of experimentation with reforms in China proivde a critical mass of evidence for analyzing the problems endemic to cnetrally planned economies and the dilemmas faced in efforts to reform them. In reflecting on the Chinese and East European experiences, these essays trace the shift from a conception of reform as a mix of planning and makrets within the state sector to a socialist mixed economy with implications for the emergence of new social groups and autonomous social organizations. The essays exemplify a new perspective in the study of state socialism that changes the focus from ideologies to economic institutions, examining how the activities of subordinate groups place limits on the power of state elites. The authors include scholars who have shaped debates in Eastern Europe and whose work is now stimulating much discussion in China, as well as representatives of a younger generation of economists, sociologists, and political scientists writing on the basis of field research recently conducted in factories, cities, and villages in China and Eastern Europe. The contributors are: Wlodzimierz Brus, Walter D. Connor, Zhiren Lin, Victor Nee, Susan Shirk, David Stark, Ivan Szelenyi, and Martin King Whyte. An introductory essays surveys recent theories and research on state socialism and outlines a new institutional perspective for understanding the dilemmas of partial reforms, the political cycles of reform and retrenchment, and the role of subordinate groups in stimulating changes outside the state sector.

This portrait of social change in the North China plain depicts how the world of the Chinese peasant evolved during an era of war and how it in turn shaped the revolutionary process. The book is based on evidence gathered from archives and interviews with villagers and rural officials.