Training the Party
Party Adaptation and Elite Training in Reform-era China

Charlotte P. Lee examines the Chinese Communist Party's renewed emphasis on party-managed training academies.

Charlotte P. Lee (Author)

9781107090637, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 2 July 2015

264 pages, 23 b/w illus. 43 tables
13.6 x 16 x 2 cm, 0.53 kg

'Lee's book provides a comprehensive understanding of how marketization has changed cadre training, and allowed the CCP to use the party school system to adapt to new governance challenges and maintain the elite cohesion needed by single-party regimes. … Despite the complexity, all of this information is incredibly valuable and I consider the book to be a great reference guide to understanding the party school system, as well as a contribution to the mechanisms underpinning the resilience of the CCP.' Jessica C. Teets, Journal of Chinese Political Science

Charlotte P. Lee considers organizational changes taking place within the contemporary Chinese Communist Party (CCP), examining the party's renewed emphasis on an understudied but core set of organizations: party-managed training academies or 'party schools'. This national network of organizations enables party authorities to exert political control over the knowledge, skills, and careers of officials. Drawing on in-depth field research and novel datasets, Lee finds that the party school system has not been immune to broader market-based reforms but instead has incorporated many of the same strategies as actors in China's hybrid, state-led private sector. In the search for revenue and status, schools have updated training content and become more entrepreneurial as they compete and collaborate with domestic and international actors. This book draws attention to surprising dynamism located within the party, in political organizations thought immune to change, and the transformative effect of the market on China's political system.

1. Introduction
2. The organizational landscape
3. Managing the managers
4. Fusing party and market
5. The entrepreneurial party school
6. Adaptation measured
7. Conclusion: risks and limits to party reforms
Appendices: A. Number of party schools, by locale and national share of leading cadres
B. Note on sources and research methods
C. Central Party School organization
D. City Z training allocations, 2008
E. Descriptive statistics and robustness tests of PSM presented in Chapter 3
F. Central Party School Mid-Career Cadre Training Classes descriptive data
G. International partnerships, central and provincial-level party schools
H. Categories for coding training syllabi.

Subject Areas: Marxism & Communism [JPFC], Comparative politics [JPB], Sociology [JHB]