Party vs. State in Post-1949 China: The Institutional Dilemma

Description

This book provides the most comprehensive analysis of one of the most important issues in contemporary China: the tensions between the Chinese Communist Party and Chinese state institutions. Taking the "neo-institutionalist" approach, Zheng suggests that the Party faces an institutional dilemma: it cannot live with the state, and it cannot live without the state. It is not only conceptually constructive, but analytically imperative to distinguish the Chinese state from the Communist Party. Zheng makes efforts to overcome the tendency toward specialized scholarship at the expense of comparative and systemic understanding.

'Professor Zheng presents an insightful and lucid overview of the development of China's public institutions since 1949.' Brantly Womack, Northern Illinois University 'This is an extremely interesting and thought-provoking book about the contradictions and tensions bedevilling the Chinese Communist Party and state. ... the book [is] an extremely valuable contribution to a growing body of work on the party and the state. Furthermore its problematization of the ubiquitous 'Party-state' category is pioneering. Scholars and students of Chinese politics, communist and post-communist studies and public administration are well advised to add this to their bookshelves.' Jude Howell, Government and Opposition