Democracy and Organisation in the Chinese Industrial Enterprise (1948–1953)

Originally published in 1976, this book examines how a new system of factory management was implemented in China after the liberation of 1948–9.

William Brugger (Author)

9780521134293, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 10 June 2010

384 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm, 0.56 kg

Originally published in 1976, this book examines how a new system of factory management was implemented in China after the liberation of 1948–9. At that time, the Chinese Communist Party attempted to integrate a commitment to broad participation in management by industrial workers with a rigid system of control deriving from the Soviet Union. The integration was not accomplished successfully and the events of the period 1948–53 discussed by Dr Brugger set the stage for the rejection of the Soviet model in the mid-1950s. The focus of the book is broadly political and sociological rather than economic, and the author examines closely the political background against which economic change was introduced. This book formed part of a growing genre of writing which rejected earlier assumptions of an uncritical acceptance in China of models of industrialism imported from the Soviet Union.

Introduction
Part I. Historical Background: 1. The Chinese pattern of industrialisation in comparative perspective
Part II. The Political Environment: 2. The moderate phase (1949–50)
3. From radicalism to stability (1951–3)
Part III. Administrative Rationality: 4. Planning and accounting
5. Incentives and labour agreements
6. A discrete command structure
Part IV. Checks and Balances: 7. Checks on managerial bureaucratism and authoritarianism
Conclusion
Appendix 1. Some examples of wage point formulation
Appendix 2. Collective contract of the glass factory under the Lushun–Talien Far East Electronics Bureau
Appendix 3. Two patriotic compacts
Brief biographical data
Notes to the text
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: General & world history [HBG]