Governing China: From Revolution Through Reform [Hardcover]

Kenneth Lieberthal (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 039396714X | ISBN-13: 978-0393967142 | Publication Date: January 1995 | Edition: Cllege Txt

In this highly readable account by a renowned expert on Chinese politics, we enter China's real channels of power, known to all participants but invisible to most observers. In this shadow world behind the formal organizational charts, power runs vertically through gateways, or mouths (kous), that connect Beijing to the smallest local neighborhoods in this far-flung land. The mouths of power are guarded by the most powerful men in the nation. It is a world of organizations but no institutions, of constantly changing rules. With a focus on the period of Communist Party rule since 1949, Lieberthal shows how the ways and forms of power were precipitated out of the rush of historical events in twentieth-century China. He presents compelling accounts of major events from the Long March through the Cultural Revolution, to China's post-Tiananmen economic surge, and incisive analyses of their political meaning. Lieberthal also explores the key issues challenging China now - succession at the top, a destabilizing level of economic growth, a degraded environment, human rights, the impending takeover of Hong Kong, and relations with Taiwan.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

University of Michigan political science professor Lieberthal here presents a devastating critique of Mao's rule and its disastrous legacy. In the Maoist movement's peasant-based, military path to power, he perceives the roots of many characteristics of post-1949 China--for example, the close interlocking of party and army, repeated attacks on intellectuals, and mass political campaigns. Lieberthal credits Deng Xiaoping of the late 1970s and early '80s as an innovative reformer, an improvisational genius who effected a conscious reduction in the government's control of social and economic activity. This engrossing text also provides an amazingly detailed blueprint of modern China's power elite, their propaganda and coercive systems. Lieberthal, an adviser to the State Department and the World Bank, details the clash of China's new generation of technocrats and its stagnant gerontocracy as he discusses such issues as political succession, managing the economy and limiting environmental damage. China, which now has the world's largest armed forces, will remain authoritarian in the foreseeable future, he believes, even as it makes enormous economic advances.

Copyright 1995 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

In the past decade, China's dramatic economic growth has captured the world's attention. But there is still lingering uncertainty about its future, emerging from the inconsistencies of China's current political situation. The long history of periodic political turmoil has revealed some fundamental and inherent weaknesses of the Chinese political system. Lieberthal, an experienced China scholar, provides a systematic approach toward an understanding of the complex governing organizations of China from its imperial past, through the 20th-century revolutions, both Nationalist and Communist, until the current regime. Unlike many other China experts, Lieberthal doesn't make any predictions. Through a close look at the largest bureaucratic structures, the actual allocations of power in front and behind the organizational facade, he illuminates the difficult issues and challenges facing contemporary China. Highly recommended.?Mark Meng, St. John's Univ. Lib., New York
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 526 pages
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc; Cllege Txt edition (January 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 039396714X
• ISBN-13: 978-0393967142
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,492,205 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great First Step to Chinese Politics, May 6, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Boston, MA,USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Governing China: From Revolution Through Reform (Hardcover)

This is an excellent book if someone is looking for an introduction to chinese politics, history and its political economy. It is comprehensive and easy to grasp, and one of the few books of its kind that I actually found difficult to put down. It is not, however, the best book to look to for an in-depth discussion of specific topics. You should look elsewhere - you could start with Lieberthal's bibliography - if your intrests lie within a narrow subject.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fabulous First Look, January 30, 2001

By 

Read Taylor - See all my reviews

This review is from: Governing China (Paperback)

Chinese politics is incredibly tricky. We tend to think of Mao and Deng so dominating this nation that we forget that no one, not even Mao, can rule 1 billion people without a bureaucracy. I agree with the review below that someone trying to look in depth at a topic in Chinese politics will not be satisfied with this work. That's not its point, though. This and Baum's Burying Mao are two books that a reasonably intelligent reader can read on their own in order to get the basics. This does not deal much with international policy or with explicit comparisons between the Soviet and Chinese states. However, Lieberthal lays out clearly the ministries, their responsibilities and what happened when Mao, in his staggeringly limited vision, decided to bypass the massive structures that made the nation work.

Though limited temporally, this sets the stage for the rise of the Chinese Communists and works allows a reader, without wading through too much minutae, to understand what it was that Mao set out to accomplish, how much Deng undid, and what was actually set into motion within the Party and government when these two historical giants flung the nation at a new idea.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Makes things clear, May 4, 2003

By 

Kirk Matthew - See all my reviews

This review is from: Governing China: From Revolution Through Reform (Hardcover)

This is a very good book on how China actually works. For those of us who did not know a thing about this country it really sums it up nicley. This book tells how Mao and Deng pushed China to make it better. It goes in depth on how those two pushed the cadres into early retirment to bring in younger workers who new about the mordern technology and who were also more highly educated. I also really enjoyed how the author made clear how China is and can affect the future of the U.S and the entire world.