Working Paper Sites of Political Science
China: Country,
Bureaucracy, Economy, & Governmental Change
(Document Year 2000)
This readings list focuses on 6
political areas of China. A brief history of the Chinese government is given
first under the Political History section because the government was not always
in the controversial state that it is in now. After exploring the history, it is
logical to discuss the communistic government and its possible conversion to a
democratic government. This is done under the Democracy and Communism section.
Of course, no study of any government would be complete without considering its
bureaucratic aspects. This is done in the Chinese Bureaucracy and Chinese Policy
portions of the paper. China has gone through many changes because of
revolution. Now China is experiencing dramatic change because of the
governmental push to modernize. This time, the change is not being conducted
violently. The Modernity Movement section describes further this exciting time
in China. One of the most prevalent controversies concerning China today
involves its economic expansion. China might very well have the largest economy
in the world one day. Past actions in human rights have frustrated the efforts
of the Chinese government to receive full worldly support of its economic
aspirations, however. The Political Economy portion of the list has many broad,
but relative, readings and concludes the list.
Political History
Lowell Dittmer, "Bases of Power in Chinese Politics: A Theory and an Analysis of the Fall of the Gang of Four," World Politics 31, 1 (October 1978).
This paper discusses how the political actions of the Gang of Four were an ultimate failure. The Gang of Four did not succeed because of their ineptitude at base-building and the limitations of their positions in building a bureaucracy.
Hans J. van de Ven, From friend to comrade: the founding of the Chinese Communist Party, 1920-1927 (1991).
John E. Schrecker, The Chinese revolution in historical perspective (1991).
Alan P.L. Liu, Mass politics in the People’s Republic: state and society in contemporary China (1996).
Democracy and Communism
K.J. O’Brien and L. Li, "Accommodating ‘democracy’ in a one-party state: introducing village elections in China," China Quarterly 162, 1 [http://www3.oup.co.uk/chinaq/contents/] October 1, 2000.
This article studies autonomous committees in the villages of Guangxi during 1980s. It also explores how elections are implemented. The author thinks that these committees might indirectly lead to free and fair elections.
Brantly Womack, "The Party and the People: Revolutionary and Postrevolutionary Politics in China and Vietnam," World Politics, 39, 4 (July 1987).
The author defines a quasi-democratic system as an authoritarian organizational system constrained by environmental factors to be responsive in its policies to popular interests and demands. He then discusses the quasi-democratic systems used by China and Vietnam during their revolutions.
T. Wright, "State Repression and Student Protest in Contemporary China," China Quarterly 157, 1 [http://www3.oup.co.uk/chinaq/contents/] October 1, 2000.
The author uses a series of student protests in Taiwan to study the Month of March movement in order to show that the student behavior in 1989 should be viewed as a response to the political environment that surrounded the students. Believing that students’ disorganization hindered their success, the author says that their exclusivity increased the likelihood that the movement would foster change in their political environment.
R. Baum, "Democracy Deformed: Hong Kong’s 1998 legislative elections - and beyond," China Quarterly 162, 1 [http://www3.oup.co.uk/chinaq/contents/] October 1, 2000.
The author examines the institutional design of the post 1997 electoral system in Hong Kong. Elections in this system, claims the author, were relatively meaningless.
Bruce J. Dickson and Maria Rost Rublee, "Membership Has Its Privileges: The socioeconomic characteristics of Communist Party members in urban China," Comparative Political Studies 33, 1 (February 1, 2000).
Political capital (in the form of membership in the Chinese Communist Party) and human capital (in the form of higher education) are compared in this article. The authors show that intellectuals will have privileged access to the party and that political capital and human capital are converted into prestigious jobs. They show how economic reforms of the post-Mao era create dichotomy between political and social power and social prestige and economic power.
R.L. Edmonds and H.S. Yee, "Macau: From Portuguese autonomous territory to Chinese special administrative region," China Quarterly 160, 1 [http://www3.oup.co.uk/chinaq/contents/] October 1, 2000.
In late 1999, rule of Macau was returned to China and removed from Portugal. The authors state that pressure from Beijing, the local elite, and the general public contributed to the decay of Portuguese legitimacy and Portuguese cultural heritage.
Jih-wen Lin and Szu-chien Hsu, "An Agency Theory of State-Society Relations in Mainland China and Taiwan," Paper prepared for delivery at the 2000 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, D. C., August 31-September 3, 2000. Available on PROceedings website at http://pro.harvard.edu/
These authors also claim that elections in the villages of China will foster democracy. Similar elections are apparently responsible for democratic success of Taiwan. The authors distinguish the elections of China and Taiwan by using their principal-agent model.
Brian Hook, editor, The Individual and the State in China (2000).
Chinese Bureaucracy
Hongying Wang, "State and Networks in a Transitional Society," Paper prepared for delivery at the 2000 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, D. C., August 31-September 3, 2000. Available on PROceedings website at http://pro.harvard.edu/
The author explores the results of weakening the Chinese state in foreign direct investment and macroeconomic management. In the first area, the government has largely achieved its policy goals despite weak institutions. In the second area, the government has been less successful because of the weak institutions.
Qianfan Zhang, "The People’s Court in Transition: The prospects of the Chinese judicial reform," Paper prepared for delivery at the 2000 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, D. C., August 31-September 3, 2000. Available on PROceedings website at http://pro.harvard.edu/
In late 1999, the Chinese Supreme People’s Court attmepted legal reform. The author focuses on "The Outline of a Five-Year Reform of the People’s Court." Asking whether the proposed legal reform will succeed in China, the author analyzes contemporary political and social conditions.
Murray Scot Tanner, The Politics of Lawmaking in Post-Mao China: Institutions, processes, and democratic prospects (2000 ).
Chinese Policy
David Zweig, "Strategies of Policy Implementation: Policy winds and brigade accounting in rural China, 1968-1978," World Politics 37, 2 (January 1985).
In this paper, the author explains policy implementation when the following elements are included: 1) the level of elite integration, 2) the pattern of elite interaction with local leaders, and 3) the redistributive nature of the policy content.
Robert S. Ross, "International Bargaining and Domestic Politics: US - China Relations since 1972," World Politics 38, 2 (January 1986).
The author addresses US - China relations with Taiwan and explains how Chinese domestic politics influences the policy of China toward the US.
Chou Kwok Ping, Bill, "Policy Implementation Problems in Modernizing China - A Case Study of Public Personnel Reform in Shenzhen City," Paper prepared for delivery at the 2000 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, D. C., August 31-September 3, 2000. Available on PROceedings website at http://pro.harvard.edu/
The author studies the implementation process of Chinese public personnel reform in the 1980s and 1990s. Using three variables - policy content, policy actors, and policy context, the author argues further study of the implementation process should be concerned with individual reform instead of "the reform as a whole" that is present due to the absence of measurable reform policy.
Lowell Dittmer and Yu-Shan Wu, "The Modernization of Factionalism in Chinese Politics," World Politics 47, 4 (July 1995).
The authors say that factionalism, in the context of a bureaucratic environment during a reform era, has embraced policy goals and material interests.
Phillip Saunders, "Supping with a Long Spoon: Dependence and interdependence in Sino-American Relations," China Journal Online 43 (January 2000) [http://rspas.anu.edu.au/ccc/journal.htm] October 1, 2000.
Renewed participation of China in the world economy offers China possible national power to fulfull its ambitions to have greater international influence. However, the author says that economic interdependence of China might also cause increased vulnerability to foreign influence. Such a situation is more likely in relations between China and the US.
Robert S. Ross, editor, After the Cold War : domestic factors and US-China relations (1998).
Modernity Movement
Tyrene White, "Postrevolutionary Mobilization in China: The one-child policy reconsidered," World Politics 43, 1 (October 1990).
Useing the post-Mao Chinese experience and a case study of China’s one-child policy, the author argues that mobilization has remained a necessary part of postrevolutionary politics.
Alex Inkeles, C. Montgomery Broaded, and Zhongde Cao, "Causes and Consequences of Individual Modernity in China," China Journal Online 37 (January 1997) [http://rspas.anu.edu.au/ccc/journal.htm] October 1, 2000.
In this paper, the author measures individual Chinese modernity. Although the individual modernity is the same in China as in other developing countries, the social correlates of individual modernity are different. Education and workers are a primary focus in this paper.
J. Benedict, Tria Kerkvliet, Anita Chan, and Jonathan Unger, "Comparing the Chinese and Vietnamese Reforms: An introduction," China Journal Online 40 (July 1998) [http://rspas.anu.edu.au/ccc/journal.htm] October 1, 2000.
The authors attempt to find why economies in Eastern Europe suffer during their political change while economies in China and Vietnam enjoy economic blessings during their modernization.
Alexander Woodside, "Exalting the Latecomer State: Intellectuals and the state during the Chinese and Vietnamese reforms," 39 China Journal Online (January 1998) [http://rspas.anu.edu.au/ccc/journal.htm] October 1, 2000.
This author also compares Chinese and Vietnamese economic reforms as the two countries attempt modernization.
Wang, Fei-Ling, Institutions and Institutional Change in China: Premodernity and Modernization (2000).
Political Economy
Stephen B. Herschler, "Market Ideology and State Power in Communist China," Paper prepared for delivery at the 2000 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, D. C., August 31-September 3, 2000. Available on PROceedings website at http://pro.harvard.edu/
The author asserts that state ideology has had a critical role in the expansion of the economy and that it has contributed to the perpetuation of state power over local government. Concluding comments include possible problems that the current economic ideology poses to state power.
Dali L. Yang, "Economic Transformation and State Rebuilding in China," Paper prepared for delivery at the 2000 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, D. C., August 31-September 3, 2000. Available on PROceedings website at http://pro.harvard.edu/
The author looks at President Jiang's mode of increasing military support as well as control over political appointment. Restructuring of the taxation, fiscal, banking, and financial systems reveal that central-local relations are unbalanced. Reforms such as government streamlining and de facto privatization have been accompanied by a program to reconstitute the government.
Cal Clark, "Theories of Development and the Taiwan Experience: Success and challenge from incongruity," Paper prepared for delivery at the 2000 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, D. C., August 31-September 3, 2000. Available on PROceedings website at http://pro.harvard.edu/
The Republic of China on Taiwan (ROC) is considered to be an economic miracle. Diminishing levels of inequality and the creation of a broadly based middle class are most notable among its many economic successes. The author examines the relationship between economic and theoretical approaches in postwar-Taiwan.
Thomas G. Rawski, "Reforming China’s Economy: What have we learned?" China Journal Online 41 (January 1999) [http://rspas.anu.edu.au/ccc/journal.htm] October 1, 2000.
Researchers have shown that "flexible prices, openness to international trade, minimal government intervention in market operations, and private ownership of productive resources" are characteristic in the transitions of socialist countries. The author claims that such characteristics are not prevalent in the changing economy of China.