Party vs. State in Post-1949 China: The Institutional Dilemma

by Shiping Zheng

Overview

This book provides the most comprehensive analysis of one of the most important issues in contemporary China: the tensions between the Chinese Communist Party and Chinese state institutions. Taking the "neo-institutionalist" approach, Zheng suggests that the Party faces an institutional dilemma: it cannot live with the state, and it cannot live without the state. It is not only conceptually constructive, but analytically imperative to distinguish the Chinese state from the Communist Party. Zheng makes efforts to overcome the tendency toward specialized scholarship at the expense of comparative and systemic understanding.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521582056
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	07/13/1997
Series:	Cambridge Modern China Series
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	6.26(w) x 9.33(h) x 0.91(d)

Table of Contents

Part I. Introduction: 1. Understanding the state and party in China; 2. Where did the Chinese state come from?; Part II. State-building under a Revolutionary Party: the Mao Zedong Era: 3. Revolution, laws and party; 4. Party leadership and state administration; 5. Army-building and revolutionary politics; 6. Politics of campaigns: the Cultural Revolution; Part III: State-building under a Reformist Party: the Deng Xiaoping Era: 7. Reform, legal system and party rule; 8. Changing party-government relations; 9. Military modernization and party politics; Conclusion; Appendix A. CCP Membership Changes, 1921–94; Appendix B. Campaigns in China, 1950–89.

Editorial Reviews

"This is an important study for understanding both the future of China and the tragedies of its communist past. Although scores of studies deal with China's government and politics, Zheng's book is virtually unique in its effort to disaggregate the "party-state." Choice

"Shiping Zheng has succeeded in his first book in providing an interesting and comprehensive overview of Chinese politics that is not merely an updated recapitulation of what most China specialists already know. Thus his book will be of interest not only to undergraduate and graduate students in China studies (primarily Chinese politics), but to professional China watchers (academics, journalists) as well." Lowell Dittmer, Political Science Quarterly

From the Publisher