Mass Politics In The People's Republic: State And Society In Contemporary China

Description

Exploring the crucial link between state and society in the People's Republic of China, this study analyzes the interaction between the Chinese Communist Party and the country's major social groups—peasants, workers, youths and students, and ethnic minorities—since the founding of the People's Republic. Alan Liu argues that uninstitutionalized public opinion has existed in China ever since the inception of the Communist regime and that it gradually grew powerful enough to thwart Mao's policies and programs. He contends that the government's radical post-Mao reforms emerged less from the preferences of another paramount leader—Deng—than from public opinion, which has grown too strong for the Communist Party either to ignore or control. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Dedication Copyright CONTENTS List of Tables and Illustrations Acknowledgments List of Acronyms 1 Introduction: Rise of the Mass in Chinese Politics Public Opinion The State Social Structure Environment of Conflict Sources Notes 2 State and the Peasantry Peasant Reactions to Mao's Rule Chinese Peasants Under Deng General Public Opinion Specific Opinion Anti-Pauperization Actions Institutional Fluidity: The Rise of Gemeinschaft Conclusion Notes 3 Workers: Reaction and Ambivalence Class Conflicts in the 1950s Rise of Sectionalism, Mid-1960s and 1970s Workers in Early Reform Transition, 1977-1985 Workers Under Accelerated Reforms, 1986-1994 State Reaction to the Workers' Movement Conclusion Notes 4 Political Attitudes and Behavior of Students: Cycles of Protest Main Points of Conflict Bases of Conflict Situational Facilities Cycles of the Student Movement Student Attitudes After the Massacre Notes 5 Ethnic Separatism General Characteristics of Ethnicity Reactive Ethnicity in the 1950s Abeyance,1958-1977 Heterotropic Ethnicity, 1978-1995 Notes 6 Conclusion: Public Opinion, Political Culture, and Prospects for Civil Society in China Public Opinion and Political Culture Prospects of Civil Society Notes Bibliography About the Book and Author Index