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Harvard Contemporary China #17
Mao’s Invisible Hand: The Political Foundations of Adaptive Governance in China
Observers have been predicting the demise of China's political system since Mao Zedong's death over thirty years ago. The Chinese Communist state, however, seems to have become increasingly adept at responding to challenges ranging from leadership succession and popular unrest to administrative reorganization, legal institutionalization, and global economic integration. What political techniques and procedures have Chinese policymakers employed to manage the unsettling impact of the fastest sustained economic expansion in world history?
As the authors of these essays demonstrate, China's political system allows for more diverse and flexible input than would be predicted from its formal structures. Many contemporary methods of governance have their roots in techniques of policy generation and implementation dating to the revolution and early PRC--techniques that emphasize continual experimentation. China's long revolution had given rise to this guerrilla-style decisionmaking as a way of dealing creatively with pervasive uncertainty. Thus, even in a post-revolutionary PRC, the invisible hand of Chairman Mao--tamed, tweaked, and transformed--plays an important role in China's adaptive governance.
As the authors of these essays demonstrate, China's political system allows for more diverse and flexible input than would be predicted from its formal structures. Many contemporary methods of governance have their roots in techniques of policy generation and implementation dating to the revolution and early PRC--techniques that emphasize continual experimentation. China's long revolution had given rise to this guerrilla-style decisionmaking as a way of dealing creatively with pervasive uncertainty. Thus, even in a post-revolutionary PRC, the invisible hand of Chairman Mao--tamed, tweaked, and transformed--plays an important role in China's adaptive governance.
336 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2011
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About the author
Sebastian Heilmann
16 books2 followersSebastian Heilmann is a German political scientist and sinologist. The founding president of the Mercator Institute for China Studies, a Berlin think tank established in 2013, Heilmann has published on China's political system, economic policy and international relations.
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June 6, 2018
This one is excellent. A crisp history of the impact of revolutionary governance on the post-Reform CCP. Seems to encapsulate many of the strands of Chinese political reality that western commentators repeatedly and infatiguably either don’t understand, or refuse to.
A bit dated now—this is all pre-Xi—but I think that speaks largely to just how ahead of the curve these authors were.
A bit dated now—this is all pre-Xi—but I think that speaks largely to just how ahead of the curve these authors were.
Displaying 1 of 1 review