Revisiting Collectivism and Rural Governance in China

2020 ◽  
pp. 35-49
Author(s):  
Lau Kin Chi

Zhoujiazhuang is singular, being the only de facto people's commune in China today. At present, Zhoujiazhuang still maintains the political, economic, and social structure that has been essentially in place since 1956. For over sixty years—since ten years before the Cultural Revolution and thirty-eight years after the dismantling of almost all people's communes in 1982—Zhoujiazhuang has survived as an organizational unit over the same territory comprising the same six natural villages.

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Feng Deng

Purpose Many studies on witch killings in Africa suggest that “witchcraft is the dark side of kinship.” But in Chinese history, where patriarchal clan system has been emphasized as the foundation of the society, there have been few occurrences of witch-hunting except a large-scale one in the Cultural Revolution in 1966. The purpose of this paper is to explain the above two paradoxes. Design/methodology/approach Theoretical analysis based on preference falsification problem with regard to the effect of social structure on witch-hunting is carried out. Findings There is a “bright side of kinship” due to two factors: first, it would be more difficult to pick out a person as qualitatively different in Chinese culture; second, the hierarchical trust structure embedded in the Chinese culture can help mitigate the preference falsification problem, which acts as the leverage for witch-hunting. In this sense, an important factor for the Cultural Revolution is the decline of traditional social institutions and social values after 1949. Originality/value This paper is the first to advance the two paradoxes and offer an explanation from the perspective of social structure.


1973 ◽  
Vol 55 ◽  
pp. 450-477 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellis Joffe

Whatever may have been the objectives of the principal participants in the Cultural Revolution, there can be little doubt that they did not include what turned out to be, at least in the short term, the most striking and significant outcome of the upheaval: the rise of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) to a pivotal position in China's power structure. Compelled to intervene in the political process when the disruptive effects of the struggle reached dangerous dimensions, the army gradually ascended to the commanding heights of political power in the provinces, and acquired a substantial voice in the policy-making councils of Peking. When the Ninth Congress of the Party finally met in April 1969 to write the epilogue to the Cultural Revolution, it was the PLA rather than the Party that held most of the key positions of power in China.


2016 ◽  
Vol 227 ◽  
pp. 653-673 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Russo

AbstractA number of prolonged political experiments in Chinese factories during the Cultural Revolution proved that, despite any alleged “historical” connection between the Communist Party and the “working class,” the role of the workers, lacking a deep political reinvention, was framed by a regime of subordination that was ultimately not dissimilar from that under capitalist command. This paper argues that one key point of Deng Xiaoping's reforms derived from taking these experimental results into account accurately but redirecting them towards the opposite aim, an even more stringent disciplining of wage labour. The outcome so far is a governmental discourse which plays an important role in upholding the term “working class” among the emblems of power, while at the same time nailing the workers to an unconditional obedience. The paper discusses the assumption that, while this stratagem is one factor behind the stabilization of the Chinese Communist Party, it has nonetheless affected the decline of the party systems inherited from the 20th century.


1994 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 409-430 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Sneath

A number of papers have been written in the west on the subject of the Cultural Revolution in Inner Mongolia. Hyer and Heaton's (1968) account of the period in the China Quarterly deals with events up until 1968, and relies heavily upon an analysis of the news reports broadcast by Radio Inner Mongolia at that time. The paper focuses upon the fate of Ulanhu, the Chairman of the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region who fell from power during the Cultural Revolution. Hyer and Heaton are concerned primarily with the power struggles within the political apparatus, and they include no first-hand or eyewitness accounts. The paper gives no indication of the effects of the Cultural Revolution upon the great bulk of the population of the I.M.A.R., either Mongolian or Han Chinese. However, the article does carefully document the rapidly changing tide of Inner Mongolian government policy and the emergence of populist groups which challenged the political establishment, over the period 1965 to 1968.


1986 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 204
Author(s):  
Donald S. Zagoria ◽  
Liang Heng ◽  
Judith Shapiro

1974 ◽  
Vol 57 ◽  
pp. 203-224

Different currents appeared to be at play in the political events of the quarter, with many of the trends being unclear or only barely discernible. One expected event which did not take place was the convening of the National People's Congress; the absence of which is also giving grounds for believing that many political problems remained unsolved. While it appeared, particularly in the field of foreign relations, that the post-10th Congress leadership, dominated by Chou En-lai and including in the second rank many of those prominently abused during the Cultural Revolution, remained firmly in control, there also appeared to be a re-emergence of some of the ideological formulations of the Cultural Revolution. The slogan “going against the tide is a Marxist-Leninist principle,” which had been attributed to Mao during the 10th Congress in August, was frequently repeated, although with markedly different emphasis in different provinces, and the war-cry of the Cultural Revolution, “to rebel is justified,” reappeared, although without national prominence. Some of the more abstruse press discussion even suggested the possibility that Chou En-lai himself was under pressure despite the apparent dominance and security of his position.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
Yixiao Guo

This research paper analyses the main purposes the Beijing subway system, which served from 1969 to now as a tool of political defense as well as a transportation system. The notion to construct the system arose in 1953, but the first section of today’s Line 1 did not open until September 1969.  Today, the Beijing subway system is the world’s busiest in terms of annual ridership and the world’s second longest subway system, ranking only behind Shanghai’s. (Xinhua News Agency, 2017, http://www.xinhuanet.com/politics/2017-12/30/c_1122188643.htm.) The political and economic development and trends in China in the second half of 20th century and the first decade of the 21st century, such as the Cultural Revolution and the 2008 Olympics, affected the subway system’s development greatly. This paper examines Chinese documents with the aim of providing a general understanding of the development and purpose of the Beijing system, through political, economic and technical analysis, among others, of its history. There exists almost no document, ¬¬either in English or Chinese, that analyzes the development of Beijing’s subway system. However, this topic should be considered important, as it provides an alternative way of viewing the development of China and its governing principles throughout its late-20th century and current-day history.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayamba, Itojong Anthony

Corruption in Nigeria, as in several other countries across the globe, is a serious scourge that continues to expose the country to developmental setbacks in the political, economic and social facets. Apart from the unquantifiable financial resources lost annually to corruption in the private and public sectors, almost all of Nigeria’s security, social, ethnic, political and religious conflicts can be traced to corruption directly or indirectly. Whistleblowing, as an anti-corruption mechanism, has proven to be effective in many parts of the world. This paper, from a background of rentierism, attempts to examine the epistemology of Nigeria’s whistleblowing policy as well as the effectiveness, limitations, and justifications for the enhancement of the policy. The descriptive design was employed as the methodology of the study. Data were obtained mainly from secondary sources. The Theory of Two Publics was employed as theoretical framework for the study. The paper identifies insufficient legal knowledge, fear of reprisals, lack of meaningful litigation, prebendalism/loyalty provisions, and cultural and historical barriers as some of the challenges of whistleblowing in Nigeria. The paper submits that the policy, though a viable one, but yet to get the backing of an enabling law as at the time of this study, should be delicately formulated, assertively promoted to the public, and speedily sent to the National Assembly for consideration and passage.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1(50)) ◽  
pp. 5-31
Author(s):  
Dmitry V. Mosyakov ◽  

The article is devoted to criticism of the concept of the so-called “non-Western political process”. Author expresses the opinion that this concept, formulated back in the mid-50s of the 20th century, is outdated today. The fact is that after the active phase of the globalization process and huge changes in the political, economic and social structure of Eastern societies over the past 60 years, the differences between how politics is done in the West and the East have virtually disappeared. The article provides evidence that now we can see a certain universal mechanism of power, which is equally intensively used in both Western and Eastern societies and states.


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