Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-5jtmz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-04T03:44:47.281Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Modernization and Democratic Reform in China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Brantly Womack
Get access

Abstract

The new materialism underlying economic modernization in post-Mao China rests on the principles of the primacy of productivity over ideology, use of incentives based on material interests, and acknowledgment of economic and social complexity. An impressive array of political reforms has accompanied the vast changes in economic policies that these principles have inspired. These include legal and constitutional reform, a decrease in public interference in the private lives of citizens, an increase in mass voice in most organizations, and a strengthening of the people's congress system. The reforms are intended to contribute to modernization by institutionalizing orderly participation by intellectuals and the masses. The capacity of such reforms to limit arbitrary power through institutional and electoral checks is rendered ambiguous by the continued hegemony of the Chinese Communist Party.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 43 , Issue 3 , May 1984 , pp. 417 - 439
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1984

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

List of References

Ardant, Philippe, 1980. “La Conférence consultative politique du peuple chinois.” Revue d'Etudes comparative est-ouest 11, no. 1 (March): 7–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bettelheim, Charles. 1974. Cultural Revolution and Industrial Organization in China. New York: Monthly Review Press.Google Scholar
Burns, John. 1978. “The Election of Production Team Cadres in China, 1958–1974.” CQ 74 (June): 273–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yanshu, Cai. 1983. “Lue tan wo guo lao gai fa di jianshe” [A brief discussion of reconstruction of our country's labor reform law]. MYF 8 (August): 17–19.Google Scholar
Hefu, Chen, ed. 1980. Zhongguo xianfa leibian [Anthology of Chinese constitutions]. Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe.Google Scholar
Yunsheng, Chen. 1983. “Gongmin di renge zunyan bu shou qinlue” [The personal dignity of citizens is inviolable]. FY 1 (January): 15–17.Google Scholar
Zihua, Cheng. 1981. “Summary Report on the Work of the Nationwide County-Level Direct Elections.” RMRB 12 September; CLG 15, nos. 3–4 (Fall-Winter 1982–83): 172–90.Google Scholar
Tuan-sheng, Ch'ien. 1950. The Government and Politics of China, 1912–1949. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Chiu, Hungdah. 1980. “China's New Legal System.” Current History 79, vol. 458 (September): 29–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
“Communiqué of the Third Plenum of the Eleventh Central Committee.” 1978. BR 52 (29 December): 6–16.Google Scholar
“Constitution of the Chinese Communist Party.” 1977. HQ 9 (September): 33–38; BR 36(2 September): 16–22.Google Scholar
“Constitution of the Chinese Communist Party.” 1980. Draft. Foreign Broadcast Information Service, 7 November.Google Scholar
“Constitution of the Chinese Communist Party.” 1982. HQ 18 (16 September): 31–43; BR 38 (20 September): 8–21.Google Scholar
“Constitution of the PRC.” 1978. In Chen Hefu 1980, pp. 1–17; BR 11 (17 March): 5–14.Google Scholar
“Constitution of the PRC.” 1982. BR 52 (27 December).Google Scholar
“Constitution of the USSR.” 1977. In John Hazard, The Soviet System of Government, pp. 247–84. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980. 5th ed.).Google Scholar
Democracy and Legal System Commentator. 1983. “Jiuzheng wei xian xianxiang, weihu xianfa zunyan” [Correct the phenomenon of anticonstitutional actions, protect the dignity of the constitution]. MYF 5 (May): 2–6.Google Scholar
Xiaoping, Deng. 1978. “Gongren jieji yao wei shixian si ge xiandaihua zuochu youyi gongxian.” [The working class should produce exceptional accomplishments in attaining the four modernizations]. DW: 144–70.Google Scholar
Xiaoping, Deng. 1979. “Jianchi si xiang jiben yuanze” [Uphold the four fundamental principles.] DW: 124–29.Google Scholar
Xiaoping, Deng. 1980. “Muqian di xingshi he renwu” [The current situation and tasks]. DW: 203–37.Google Scholar
Garside, Roger. 1981. Coming Alive: China After Mao. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Gasper, Donald. 1982. “The Chinese National People's Congress.” In Nelson, Daniel and White, Stephen, eds., Communist Legislatures in Comparative Perspective, pp. 160–90. (Albany: State University of New York Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hammer, Darrell. 1974. The Politics of Oligarchy. Hinsdale, III.: Dryden.Google Scholar
Hinton, William. 1966. Fanshen. New York: Vintage.Google Scholar
Hinton, William. 1983. Shenfan. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Qiaomu, Hu. 1982. “Some Questions Concerning the Revision of the Party Constitution.” Xinhua interview. BR 39 (27 September): 15–19, 29.Google Scholar
Shi, Hu. 1919. “Wenti yu zhuyi” [Problems and isms]. In Jun, Shi, ed., Zhongguo Jindai sixiang shi ciliao (N.p., n.d.).Google Scholar
Yaobang, Hu. 1982. “Create a New Situation in All Fields of Socialist Modernization: Report to the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.” BR 37 (13 September): 26.Google Scholar
Guofeng, Hua. 1977. “Political Report to the Eleventh National Congress of the CCP” BR 35 (26 August): 23–57.Google Scholar
Guofeng, Hua. 1979. “Report on the Work of the Government.” BR 27 (6 July): 15–30.Google Scholar
Konrad, Georgy, and Szelenyi, Ivan. 1979. The Intellectuals on the Road to Class Power. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.Google Scholar
Lee, Hong Yung. 1978. The Politics of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leng, Shao-chuan. 1967. Justice in Communist China. Dobbs Ferry, NY: Oceana.Google Scholar
Leng, Shao-chuan. 1981. “Criminal Justice in Post-Mao China.” CQ 87 (September): 440–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buyun, Li. 1983. “Lun renmin daibiao di quanli yu yiwu” [On the rights and responsibilities of people's deputies]. FY 1 (January): 1–6.Google Scholar
Li, Li and Guohua, Hu. 1983. “Dang xiao gongzuo di zhanlue zhuanzhe” [A strategic change in the work of the Central Party School]. Liaowang 3 (March): 9–11.Google Scholar
Maoguan, Li. 1981. “Gongmin di ziyou he falü” [Citizens' rights and the law]. FY (April): 5–8.Google Scholar
Li, Victor. 1978. Law Without Lawyers. Boulder, Colo.: Westview.Google Scholar
Cheng, Lu and Gu, Zhu. 1980. “Effectively Safeguard the People's Democratic Rights.” HQ 17 (1 September): 6–11; GLG 15, nos. 3–4: 163–71.Google Scholar
Zhichao, Lu. 1981. “Stability, Unity, and Socialist Democracy.” RMRB 28 January; CLG 15, nos. 3–4: 116–23.Google Scholar
Bing, Luo. 1983. “Liu jie ren da hui nei hui wai” [Inside and outside of the sixth National People's Congress]. Cheng Ming 69 (July): 7–11.Google Scholar
MacFarquhar, Roderick. 1960. The Hundred Flowers Campaign and the Chinese Intellectuals. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
MacFarquhar, Roderick. 1974. The Origins of the Cultural Revolutions: Contradictions Among the People, 1956–1957. Vol. 1. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Zedong, Mao. 1949. “Methods of Work of Party Committees.” In Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung, 377–81. Vol. 4. (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1966).Google Scholar
Medvedev, Roy. 1977. On Socialist Democracy. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Longjiang, Miao. 1983. “Zhishi fenzi shi jieji xiongdi” [Intellectuals are class brothers]. MYF 1 (January): 9–11.Google Scholar
O'Leary, Greg, and Watson, Andrew. 1982. “The Role of the People's Commune in Rural Development in China.” PA 55, no. 4 (Winter): 593–612.Google Scholar
“Organic Law of the Local People's Congresses.” 1979. RMRB 15 July; CLG 15, nos. 3–4: 207–25.Google Scholar
People's Daily Special Commentator. 1978. “Do Not Forget the Fish-Water Relationship.” RMRB 19 August; CLG 15, nos. 3–4: 43–50.Google Scholar
Pravda, Alex. 1978. “Elections in Communist Party States.” In Hermet, Guy et al., eds. Elections Without Choice, pp. 169–95, (New York: John Wiley).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosen, Stanley. 1983. “Guangzhou's Democracy Movement in Historical Perspective.” Manuscript.Google Scholar
“Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party Since the Founding of the PRC.” 1981. BR 27 (6 July).Google Scholar
Schram, Stuart. 1981. “To Utopia and Back.” CQ 87 (September): 407–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwartz, Benjamin. 1964. In Search of Wealth and Power. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solinger, Dorothy. 1982. “The Fifth National People's Congress and the Process of Policy-Making.” AS 12 (December): 1238–75.Google Scholar
Sansong, Tian. 1982. “Tongxiang County: Two Years After the People's Deputy Elections.” BR 5 (1 February): 13–21.Google Scholar
Townsend, James. 1969. Political Participation in Communist China. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Tsou, Tang. 1977. “Mao Tse-tung Thought, the Last Struggle for Succession, and the Post-Mao Era.” CQ 71 (September): 498–527.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jingrong, Wang. 1982. “Shehui zhuyi minzhu di zhiduhua faliihua” [Socialist democratic institutionalization and legalization]. FY 1 (January): 1–5.Google Scholar
Shuwen, Wang et al. 1982. “Lun jianguan shehiu zhuyi fazhi” [On strengthening the socialist legal system]. FY 5 (October): 1–9.Google Scholar
Shuwen, Wang and Yanrui, Zhou. 1982. “Renmin daibiao dahui di xin fazhan” [New developments in the people's congress system]. FY 3 (June): 9–14.Google Scholar
Womack, Brantly. 1979. “Politics and Epistemology in China Since Mao.” CQ 80 (December): 768–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Womack, Brantly. 1982. “The 1980 County-Level Election in China.” AS 22, no. 3 (March): 261–77.Google Scholar
Bank, World. 1983. China: Socialist Economic Development. 3 vols. Washington, D.C.: World Bank.Google Scholar
Jialin, Wu. 1979. “Some Questions Concerning Socialist Democracy.” BR 24 (15 June): 9–13.Google Scholar
Xinhua Special Commentator. 1981. “Uphold the Correct Orientation of Socialist Democracy.” RMRB 28 January; CLG 15, nos. 3–4: 100–15.Google Scholar
Xianjiao, Xiong. 1981. “Lun shenpan duli yu jiandu shenpan” [On judicial autonomy and supervision of justice]. FY (1 January): 10–14.Google Scholar
Guangyuan, Yu. 1980. “Shehui zhuyi minzhu ji shi mudi ye shi shouduan” [Socialist democracy is both an end and a means]. MYF 1 (January): 4.Google Scholar
Chunqiao, Zhang. 1975. “Guanyu xiugai xianfa di baogao” [Report on constitutional revision]. In Chen Hefu 1980, pp. 344–54.Google Scholar
Nan, Zhang. 1982. “How Workers Exercise Their Democratic Rights.” BR 40 (4 October): 18–22.Google Scholar
Ziyang, Zhao. 1982. “Report on the Sixth Five-Year Plan.” BR 51 (20 December): 10–35.Google Scholar
Zweig, David. 1983. “The System of Responsibility and People's Communes.” AS 23: 7 (July): 879–900.Google Scholar