The author investigates the internal logic and evolution of Mao's theory in terms of various themes. Beginning with a consideration of conflict, which in Mao's view is a given and permanent component of society, Professor Starr then takes up the individual concepts of knowledge and action, authority, class and class conflict, organization, participation and representation, political education, political history, and political development. Originally published in 1979. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
This book examines the role of institutions in China’s recent large-scale economic, social and political transformation. The book argues that, although the importance of institutions in China’s rapid economic growth and social development over the past 30 years is widely acknowledged, exactly how institutions affect changes in particular national and historical settings is less well understood. Unlike existing literature, it offers perspectives from a variety of disciplines - including law, economics, politics, international relations and communication studies – to consider whether institutions form, evolve and change differently according to their historical or cultural environments and if their utilitarian functions can, and should be, observed, identified and measured in different ways. The book discusses China’s political and legal institutions; the international institutions with which China engages; institutions promoting science and technology; media companies; and local institutions including the household registration system. It also examines how institutions themselves have been formed, changed and re-formed over recent decades, and suggests theoretical and methodological adjustments in institutional analysis to allow a fuller understanding of the institutional dynamics of China’s transformation.
How did Zhao Ziyang rise through the provincial apparatus of the Chinese Communist Party to become premier in 1980? How did he develop the policies of economic reform in the provinces that have now become national policy? What does Zhao Ziyang’s professional development indicate about upward elite mobility in the Chinese political system? These are the central questions the author addresses in this political biography, tracing Zhao Ziyang’s career in detail from his youth, through the Anti-Japanese War, the 1949 revolution, land reform, a series of political and economic campaigns during the 1950s and 1960s, the Cultural Revolution, political rehabilitation, and the “Sichuan Experience.” Mr. Shambaugh goes beyond a chronological account to elucidate Zhao’s job responsibilities and performance, political and economic philosophy, survival strategies, and behavior during thirty tumultous years in provincial politics. Bringing forth much new information drawn extensively from primary source materials, he also provides insights into the functioning of the post-1949 Chinese political system, especially the interplay between central and provincial politics.
