Synopses & Reviews
Review
"This book presents an extraordinarily perceptive analysis of the historical dynamics of Chinese politics. It addresses many of the most fundamental questions about the course of China's modern development and examines crucially important contemporary dilemmas in their historical context. Both China specialists and general readers will be stimulated. The final chapter is a remarkable examination of the dilemmas facing China in the wake of the Tiananmen massacre of 1989 and the urgent need for a fundamental reconciliation between state and society in China." A. Doak Barnett, School of Advanced International Studies, The Johns Hopkins University
Table of Contents
Introduction; Part I. Contemporary China and its Prerevolutionary Heritage Brantly Womack: 1. The dengist reforms in historical perspective Joseph Fewsmith; 2. China's search for democracy: public authority and popular power in China Brantly Womack; 3. A bourgeois alternative? The Shanghai arguments for a Chinese capitalism: the 20s and the 80s; Part II. Policy Dynamics Within The People's Republic of China Edmond Lee: 4. The contradictions of grassroots participation and undemocratic statism in Maoist China and their fate Marc Blecher; 5. The Chinese industrial state in historical perspective: from totalitarianism to corporatism Peter Nan-Shong Lee; 6. From revolutional cadres to bureaucratic technocrats; Part III. China's Evolving World Role Hong Yung Lee: 7. China's search for national identity Lowell Dittmer Tiananmen; 8. The Tiananmen tragedy: the state-society relationship, choices, and mechanism in historical perspective Tang Tsou.