China against the tides : restructuring through revolution, radicalism, and reform / Marc Blecher.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Blecher, Marc J.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Communism--China.

Communism.

China.

China--Politics and government--1949-.

Politics and government.

China--Economic policy--1949-.

Economic policy.

Physical Description:

xxii, 232 pages : illustrations, map ; 24 cm

Edition:

Third edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Continuum, [2010]

Summary:

Repeatedly in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, China has, to use a phrase favored by Mao Sedong, moved “against the tides” of its own great history and of winder international forces. Sometimes it even challenged the waves of revolution that it had itself set in counter-motion to previous currents. Its state went from an imperial monarchy to a short-lived republic to authoritarianism to revolutionary state socialism to market Leninist structural reform. Its economy underwent repeated shifts from crisis to rapid growth. Its society and culture were sundered by imperialism, class struggle, war and modernization, including explosive urbanization, population movement, technological change and transformation of values. How can these changes be comprehended? What has been their effect on China, the world's most populous country? And what is their significance for the rest of the world?

China Against the Tides takes four approaches. The first is China's history, focusing on its resistance to the tidal forces acting on it, and its tendency to break with its own history and with existing models, often in surprising and innovative ways. Second is the question of state socialism, which profoundly reshaped the country in the Maoist era in ways that are distinct from the Soviet model to which it bears a family resemblance. Third, China represents a unique model of “third world” development. And finally, it is a special case of East Asian developmentalism.

This edition is completely revised and updated, and includes a new chapter on China's international relations.

Contents:

Chapter 1 Imperial Legacy, Capitalist Failure, and Socialist Triumph 1

Chapter 2 The Triumph and Crises of Maoist Socialism, 1949-78 27

Chapter 3 The Crises and Triumph of Structural Reform, 1979 to the Present 63

Chapter 4 The Chinese State 92

Chapter 5 Chinese Society 109

Chapter 6 Political Economy 131

Chapter 7 Politics 166

Chapter 8 China and the World 185

Chapter 9 Toward the Future: The Consolidation of Market Leninism? 199.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780826427250

0826427251

9780826426987

0826426980

OCLC:

300983133