The Good Communist
Elite Training and State Building in Today's China

This book examines how the Chinese Communist Party retains control over China's rulers through their education and training.

Frank N. Pieke (Author)

9780521199902, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 5 November 2009

240 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.49 kg

'Pieke's seminal contribution is of pressing importance not only to anthropologists interested in the ways in which political power comes to be reproduced and refracted, but, obviously, also to students of politics as well. The underlying dynamics of China's resilient brand of 'adaptive authoritarianism' have emerged as a key research puzzle for students of comparative politics, to whom Pieke's work should also speak volumes.' Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

Has China become just another capitalist country in a socialist cloak? Will the Chinese Communist Party's rule survive the next ten years of modernization and globalization? Frank Pieke investigates these conundrums in this fascinating account of how government officials are trained for placement in the Chinese Communist Party. Through in-depth interviews with staff members and aspiring trainees, he shows that while the Chinese Communist Party has undergone a radical transformation since the revolutionary years under Mao, it is still incumbent upon cadres, who are selected through a highly rigorous process, to be ideologically and politically committed to the party. It is the lessons learnt through their teachers that shape the political and economic decisions they will make in power. The book offers unique insights into the structure and the ideological culture of the Chinese government, and how it has reinvented itself over the last three decades as a neo-socialist state.

Preface
1. Socialism, capitalism and the anthropology of neo-socialist rule
2. Cadres, cadre training and party schools
3. Cadre education and training in the twenty-first century
4. Life and work at party schools
5. Marketization and centralization of cadre education and training
6. Cadre training, cadre careers and the changing composition of China's political elite
7. Conclusions: cadre training and the future of party rule
Appendix 1. List of interviewees
Appendix 2. Questionnaire survey
Appendix 3. Glossary of Chinese terms
References.

Subject Areas: Politics & government [JP], Anthropology [JHM]