Gordon White

Developmental states in East Asia

The book analyses and evaluates the development role and impact of the state in East Asia, in both capitalist (South Korea and Taiwan) and socialist (China) contexts. It makes use of new research data on the mechanisms and impact of state intervention in East Asian development.

Riding the tiger : the politics of economic reform in post-Mao China

Acknowledgements - Abbreviations - Introduction - The Failure of the Maoist Developmental State and The Rise of the Economic Reformers - Redefining the Chinese Developmental State: An Overview - The Politics of Agrarian Reform - The Politics of Industrial Reform - Economic Reform and Ideological Decay: The Decline of Ideocracy - The Partys Over: Economic Reform and Institutional Decay - The Social Impact of Economic Reform: The Rise of Civil Society - From Market Socialism to Social Market?

The Impact of the Cultural Revolution

In organizational terms, the new organ of authority—the revolutionary committee—which emerged during the final stage of the movement in late 1969 and 1970 represented a clear departure from the unit’s organizational setup before the movement. The former positions of unit head and vice-head and the specialized committees under them were combined into one conciliar unit, linking subunits horizontally and linking cadres and masses vertically. It is important to note, however, that the former diarchy of unit head and vice-head remained embedded in the new institution—they were both vice-directors of the revolutionary committee under the PLA representative. In the early stages, in late 1969 and early 1970, however, there appears to have been little functional specialization within this multifunctional body, and lines of authority were diffuse and unclear. As the situation stabilized, however, and the organizational structure of the unit was reconstituted, three “groups” (zu) were established under the authority of the revolutionary committee. The “production group” (shengchan zu) incorporated the former technical section and the subunits, whose composition was changed in two ways. First, for apparent reasons of administrative convenience, the supply section, formerly under the unit head and vice-head, was brought under the authority of the new production group.

The Retreat of the State (Editorial)

Article originally published July 1987, Volume 18 Issue 3; original IDS editing is retained here. We are currently witnessing a global process of economic restructuring in both North and South, East and West. Though country contexts may differ, there is one strikingly common element: the criticism of statist modes of development and provision and the move towards greater use of market mechanisms in the delivery of goods and services. As the case studies covered in this Bulletin suggest, this reaction against statist forms of development is common to both Western Europe and the Third World. This similarity is hardly surprising given their economic interdependence, the activity of international disciplinary institutions such as the MF and the World Bank, and the historical link between the emergence of developmental states in the newly independent territories and the system of managed capitalism practised by their former colonial masters. Do the contributors to this Bulletin offer any ways forward for both theory and practice? Certain analytical points emerge which arc important guides to thinking about policy.

The Political Process During the Cultural Revolution I: Context and Issues

With the preceding chapter as context, we now intend to analyze those characteristics of the unit’s political experience during the Cultural Revolution which we consider significant in terms of the light they throw on more general patterns of political behavior in China.

The Nature of General Issues in the Unit

We shall move now from questions of organizational and human context to those of political process. In this chapter we shall inquire into the nature of “issues” within the unit, i.e., the relatively stable and recurring events and problems which have caused concern among members of the unit, and tension or conflict between them and the unit leadership. How did these issues relate to the unit’s structure and how did the political and administrative leadership deal with them? What forms of political interaction took place around these issues between personnel and leadership? What was the structure of political relationships which developed between personnel and cadres? We begin by focusing on those basic issues which seem to have remained constant in the unit from its inception until the mid-1970s. This chapter should thus provide some insight into basic-level politics in the unit in “normal” times, acting as a backdrop for our later discussion of the specific issues which arose in the unit during the Cultural Revolution between 1967 and 1970.

The Cultural Revolution: A Narrative Account

We shall divide our study of the Cultural Revolution in the unit into two parts. In this chapter we present a chronological narrative account of the major stages of the movement and details on the political process from late 1966 to the end of 1970. With this historical information as background, we adopt a more analytical perspective in Chapters 4 and 5, inquiring systematically into the nature of political issues and, with the help of quantitative analysis, into the determinants of political behavior during the movement.

The Political Process During the Cultural Revolution II: Political Behavior

We have already discussed how factions formed and what issues emerged during the Cultural Revolution. But in order to understand why certain issues emerged and others did not, and why factions took the positions that they did, it may help to examine precisely who joined the various factions and why. To what extent, for example, was class the basic issue of concern to unit members or just a surrogate for other latent issues involving the interests of isolated individuals, friendship cliques, or occupational or other kinds of social and political groups and groupings? Answers to these kinds of questions can be approached by analyzing and comparing the correspondence of factional alignments with the various class cleavages, friendship groups, and social, political, and technical occupational cleavages that cut through the unit. In this section, then, we turn to some quantitative analyses of the social and political correlates of factional affiliation.

The Unit: Personnel, Structure, and Operations

The unit was engaged in technical survey work over a demarcated area of the country as part of a long-term national scientific program. It was established during 1964 and 1965, not long before the start of the Cultural Revolution. Many of its original personnel were recruited from similar units in the local province and from other provinces, apparently as part of a general move in the mid-1960s to shift the focus of this field of technical survey work from the eastern coastal provinces into the interior. In fact, of the personnel on whom information was available (n = 242), 76% had been reassigned from other units engaged in the same work. The unit was located in the countryside, next to a highway which linked it with the prefectural (zhuanqu) seat in one direction and with the commune town, the county seat, and the provincial capital (the latter journey taking about 4 hours by bus or 2½ to 3 hours by truck) in the other direction. Unit personnel went to the county seat to do their shopping since the market in the commune town, though nearer, did not sell many of the things they needed. They also went to the county seat to handle matters of civil administration, such as the registration of births, marriages, and the like. The province capital was not considered far away, and members traveled there often by public transport or in the unit’s trucks.