The Decline of Communism in China
Legitimacy Crisis, 1977–1989

This 1994 book analyses elite politics in China during the decade of reform (1977–89).

X. L. Ding (Author)

9780521451383, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 24 June 1994

248 pages, 1 b/w illus. 7 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.528 kg

"There have been several good studies done recently on political elites in post-Mao China. This book is a valuble contribution to this growing literature .... Ding's work is groundbreaking. It documents in great detail how the counterelites in China have gone about their work and is a significant contribution to the study of behavior." Steven J. Hood, China Review International

This 1994 book examines the relationship between the Communist political elite and the largely anti-Communist intellectual elite during the decade of reform (1977–89). The author, who was a participant in these events, shows how the Deng Xiaoping regime precipitated a legitimacy crisis by encouraging economic reform while preventing political reform, and how the intellectual elite used this situation to increase its own power. The book also offers a theoretical model to explain how a political resistance movement could gain power in a nation that does not have a well-developed civil society. The concept of 'institutional parasitism' shows that rather than developing separate institutions, the anti-Communist intellectuals occupied state structures from which oppositional activity was carried out. The book will be of interest to both scholars of China and students of comparative Communism.

Introduction
Part I: 1. Theoretical and comparative issues
2. The counter-elite and its institutional basis
Part II: 3. 'The movement to 'emancipate the mind' and the counter-elite's response
4. 'Building socialist spiritual civilisation' and the counter-elite's response
5. Two contending patriotic campaigns
6. Admission of the 'primary stage of socialism' and the counter-elite's two development models
Concluding remarks
Appendix
Selected bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], Asian history [HBJF]