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Post-Mao China From Totalitarianism to Authoritarianism?
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Sujian Guo
Book Code: C6780
ISBN: 0-275-96780-8
ISBN-13: 978-0-275-96780-2
240 pages, figures, tables
Praeger Publishers
Publication: 1/30/2000
List Price: $110.95 (UK Sterling Price: £65.00)
Availability: Print on demand
Media Type: Hardcover
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects: Related Web Pages: Reviews:
  • "Recommended for graduate students and faculty..."
    —Choice
  • This is an important book that will be valuable to comparitive political scientists and area specialists in equal measure. They may disagree with its method and conclusions, but they will finish the book having read a convincing and logical argument that is reinforced by a strong commitment to thorough empirical research and analysis.
    —American Journal of Chinese Studies     October 2001
  • Endorsement From Hungdah Chiu, Professor of Law
    School of Law at the University of Maryland
    Director, East Asian Legal Studies Program
    President, International Law Association (1998-2000)
    Ambassador-at-Large of the Republic of China:     This book presents a new assessment of post-Mao changes, with new insight into many controversial issues in the post-Mao Deng's reform....This is a book which is essential to understanding contemporary China. I am pleased to recommend this book to western readers and hope a Chinese version will soon be published in Taiwan or Hong Kong for Chinese language readers outside China.
  • Endorsement From Andrew J. Nathan
    Professor of Political Science
    East Asian Institute
    Columbia University:     [Dr. Guo] throws much light on Chinese communist organization and idealogy, and makes a useful contribution to the debate over regime types.
  • Endorsement From Yen-p'ing Hao
    Lindsay Young Professor of History
    University of Tennessee, Knoxville:     Boldly conceptualized and painstakingly researched, this book sheds new light on modern China's historical continuity and change as well as her possible future development.... With great sophistication this book provides a fresh, convincing assessment of post-Mao China markedly different from the established views.
Description: Guo challenges the predominant view that post-Mao China has moved away from communist totalitarianism and that totalitarianism is an outdated paradigm for China studies. He seeks to reconstruct a plausible macro-model in conceptual and comparative terms for defining "regime identity" and assessing the nature of regime change. Professor Guo then applies the model to the study of regime change in post-Mao China and reevaluates post-Mao changes across the five major empirical aspects of regime change (political, ideological, economic, legal, and social) and the most critical dimensions of each. The findings of Guo's study demonstrate that the practice of post-Mao reforms remains rooted in and committed to the "hard core" of Chinese communist totalitarianism and that the regime has attempted to revive many typical totalitarian practices. Most essential or core elements of the idea, practice, and institution of totalitarianism remain essentially unchanged in all major aspects of the post-Mao regime, though the post-Mao regime does suffer from a certain degree of "regime weakening" in its adjustments of the action means or "protective belt" of defending the hard core of the communist totalitarian regime. A controversial and essential analysis for scholars, researchers, and policy makers involved with contemporary China.
Table of Contents:
  • Introduction: Theoretical Model
  • Ideological Faith Crisis: Does the Communist Ideology Matter?
  • Political Development: Withering Party Power?
  • Legal Innovations: The Rule of Law?
  • Social Changes: Takeover by Civil Society?
  • Economic Reforms: Transition Towards Capitalism?
  • Conclusion: The End or Continuity of Communist Totalitarianism?
  • Bibliography
LC Card Number: 99-43110
LCC Class: JQ1510
Dewey Class: 320
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