Ideology and Organization in Communist China

Franz Schurmann

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9780520357693
• eBook ISBN: 9780520311152
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Asian History
• Index: History

In 1949 a powerful political-military movement, led by the Chinese Communist party, gained control of war-ravaged China, inheriting a disorganized administration and a society eroded by decades of revolution. Within a short time China was so radically transformed politically, economically, and socially that it appeared to have cut all links with the past. The instruments of that transformation were ideology and organization. Today, seventeen years later, the ideology and the organizational network, despite changes, remain as powerful as they were in 1949. They still hold that vast country together politically and determine its economic and social development. This book, after a discussion of ideology in its first part, attempts to answer the question how Chinese Communist organization functions and why it is so successful. The second part analyzes the organization of Party and government, emphasizing methods of command and administration. The third part looks at industrial organization: the problems of management and control, especially the continuing struggle between the professionals and the politicians. The fourth part investigates the Chinese Communist methods of organizing their cities and villages, tracing the history of village organization from traditional times through the Yenan period, the land reform of the late 1940's, and the collectivization of the mid-1950's to communization in 1958. Although organization has been constantly changing in China, basic patterns ar apparent. The book analyzes the most characteristic pattern in all aspects of organization, the conflict between two incompatible elements or, in the Chinese Communist terms, "contradictions." The basic contradiction is that between professional ("expert") and political ("red") elements. This contradiction dominates the two distinctive periods in the short history of Communist China, the First Five-Year Plan (1953 - 1957) and the so-called Great Leap Forward (1958 - 1960). The book describes how the Chinese Communists attempted during the former period to emulate the Soviet organizational experience, with stress on techniques and technology; and during the latter period to use their own organizational methods to achieve economic progress. The presentation of the contrast between these two models of organization sheds light on the significant differences between the Soviet Union and Communist China. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1966.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• CONTENTS 1
• INTRODUCTION
• CHAPTER I
• DEFINITIONS
• PURE AND PRACTICAL IDEOLOGY Theory and Thought
• Weltanschauung
• Ideology and Behavior
• The Theory of Contradictions
• IDEOLOGY IN ACTION A System of Communications
• The Mass Media
• The Function of Ideology in.Organization
• THE DIALECTICAL CONCEPTION OF CHINESE SOCIETY
• The Dialectic of the Economy
• The Dialectic of the State
• The Dialectic of Society
• The Resolution of Contradictions
• CHAPTER II
• SOVIET AND CHINESE CONCEPTIONS The Party as Organization
• Party and State
• State and Society
• Nation
• THE PARTY RULES
• The General Outline of the Party Rules
• THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PARTY
• THE STRUCTURE OF THE PARTY
• The Central Organizations of the Party
• The Organization of the Party in the Provinces
• The Organization of the Party in the Hsien and Cities
• Basic-Level Party Organization
• Other Party Organizations
• THE PARTY CADRE The Cadre Concept and its Development
• Sources of Recruitment
• GOVERNMENT GENERAL TRENDS IN ADMINISTRATION
• CENTRAL GOVERNMENT
• The State Council
• The Military Branch
• The Judicial Branch
• VERTICAL RULE AND DUAL RULE
• DECENTRALIZATION
• REGIONAL GOVERNMENT
• POWER AT THE PROVINCIAL LEVELS
• CHAPTER IV
• BUREAUCRACY AND MANAGEMENT Distinctions
• Business and Industry,
• The Dichotomy between Policy and Operations
• Organizational Unity
• Personal Relationships in Chinese Management
• Technical and Human Organization
• Leadership Alternatives for Management
• Policy and Bureaucratism
• THE SOVIET MODEL OF MANAGEMENT Rebuilding Management
• The Responsibility System
• One-man Management
• THE ATTACK ON ONE-MAN MANAGEMENT Criticisms
• One-Man Management and Kao Kang
• The Intensifying Critique
• A Chinese View of Soviet Methods
• THE GROWTH OF PARTY AUTHORITY OVER MANAGEMENT The Abolition of One-man Management
• Management Under Collective Leadership
• The Great Leap Forward Conception of Management
• TOWARD A MORE FLEXIBLE CONCEPTION OF MANAGEMENT
• CONTROL CONCEPTS
• Methods of Control in the Soviet Union and in Communist China
• THE CREATION OF A CONTROL SYSTEM The Beginnings of Control Work
• Control Correspondents and Denunciation
• The Building Up of a Control Network
• ECONOMIC CONTROL The Growing Concern with Economic Control
• The Introduction of the Harbin System
• Political and Economic Aspects of the Harbin System
• The Harbin System as an Independent Control Structure
• POLITICAL CONTROL The Shift Back to Political Controls
• The Shift to Internal Controls
• The Consummation of the Process
• An Exception to the Trend
• PURGES Rightism in the Ministry of State Control
• The Second Stage of the Attack
• The End of State Control Work
• The Aftermath
• CHAPTER VI
• PRE-COMMUNIST URBAN ORGANIZATION Chinese Cities Before 1949
• Paochia
• URBAN ORGANIZATION DURING THE EARLY 1 9 5 0'S The Communist Takeover
• The Residents Committees
• URBAN ORGANIZATION DURING THE GREAT LEAP FORWARD Conditions Leading to the Urban Communes
• Formation of the Urban Communes
• The Chengchow Urban Commune
• The Urban Commune as a Unit of Administration,
• THE CONTEMPORARY URBAN SITUATION The Exodus from the Cities
• The Dilemma of the Cities
• CHAPTER VII
• PEASANTRY AND VILLAGE IN TRADITIONAL CHINA State and Village
• Lichia and Paochia
• CHINESE COMMUNISM ANDTHE VILLAGES BEFORE 1949 Village Cooperative Movements
• Cooperatives during the Yenan Period (1935-1946)
• Village Organization and the Relationship
• Conflict in the Village
• Land Reform and the Revolutionary Terror
• VILLAGE POLICY IN THE EARLY 1950’S A New Administrative System
• VILLAGE POLICY IN THE MIDDLE 1 950'S The Creation of Agricultural Producers Cooperatives (APC's)
• Problems of Cooperativization
• APC's and Hsiang
• The Pace of Cooperativization
• Changes in the APC's
• VILLAGE POLICY DURING THE GREAT LEAP FORWARD Policy Changes Late in 1957
• The Campaign to Build Water Works
• Changes in Work Organization
• Amalgamating the APC's
• The Emergence of the Communes
• The Militarization of the Peasantry
• The Nature of Commune Organization
• Amalgamation of State and Society
• The Retreat
• The Commune in Historical Perspective
• REFLECTIONS ON THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION
• INTRODUCTION
• CHAPTER I
• ORGANIZATION
• PARTY
• ARMY
• GOVERNMENT
• SOCIETY
• WORKERS AND PEASANTS
• THE GREAT PROLETARIAN CULTURAL REVOLUTION
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• INDEX FOR MAIN TEXT
• INDEX FOR SUPPLEMENT