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Post-Mao China From Totalitarianism to Authoritarianism?
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Sujian Guo
ISBN: 0-275-96780-8
ISBN-13: 978-0-275-96780-2
240 pages
Praeger Publishers
Publication: 1/30/2000
List Price: $110.95 (UK Sterling Price: £76.95)
Availability: Print on demand
Media Type: Hardcover
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects:
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the predominant view that post-Mao China has moved away from communist totalitarianism and that totalitarianism is an outdated paradigm for China studies.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
About the Author: SUJIAN GUO is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at San Francisco State University and the editor of Journal of Chinese Political Science. His areas of specialization include Comparative Politics, International Relations, and Methodology. His research interests have focused on China/Asian politics, communist and post-communist studies, democratic transition, and political economy of East and Southeast Asia. He has published more than two dozen articles both in English and Chinese journals. In addition to the book Post-Mao China: From Totalitarianism to Authoritarianism?, he is the author of The Political Economy of Asian Transitions from Communism and the editor of China's Peaceful Rise in the 21st Century: Domestic and International Conditions. He can be contacted via: http://bss.sfsu.edu/sguo/.
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