Synopses & Reviews
In this significant contribution to both political theory and China studies, Lin Chun provides a critical assessment of the scope and limits of socialist experiments in China, analyzing their development since the victory of the Chinese communist revolution in 1949 and reflecting on the country’s likely paths into the future. Lin suggests that China’s twentieth-century trajectory be grasped in terms of the collective search by its people for a modern alternative to colonial modernity, bureaucratic socialism, and capitalist subordination. Evaluating contending interpretations of the formation and transformation of Chinese socialism in the contemporary conditions of global capitalism, Lin argues that the post-Mao reform model must be remade.
Review
“The Transformation of Chinese Socialism is a visionary and critical reorientation for social theory. It is a great reminder of what the stakes are just now and why socialism, far from being defunct, has as much to offer governance theories and policy planners as it always has.”—Tani E. Barlow, author of The Question of Women in Chinese Feminism
Review
“While most people have already cast China as a capitalist country with a communist government, Lin Chun shows that there may be life in Chinese socialism yet. Combining erudition, passion, and an engaging writing style, Lin challenges a lot of conventional wisdom about China. This book should be on the shelf of everyone who has any interest in the course of the Chinese economy and society.”—Meghnad Desai, author of Marx’s Revenge: The Resurgence of Capitalism and the Death of Statist Socialism
Review
“With quite exceptional historical and theoretical insight, Lin Chun examines what remains of the Chinese Revolution’s socialist legacy and explores the prospects for the rebirth of a new kind of Chinese socialism in the People's Republic. This very original and thought-provoking study is essential reading for those concerned about the future of China and the fate of socialism in the age of capitalist globalization.”—Maurice Meisner, author of Mao’s China and After: A History of the People’s Republic
Review
“The Transformation of Chinese Socialism is an important book. Lin Chun’s grasp of the issues of Chinese socialism, and the serious engagement with which she presents them, easily makes the book by far the best discussion of socialism in China available in English.”
Synopsis
Argues that the recent transformation in the political economy of China should not be seen as an abandonment of socialist principles, that this transformation differs markedly from the transitions in post Communist societies, and that social science needs
Synopsis
A significant contribution to both political theory and China studies, this volume provides a critical assessment of the past and future Chinese socialism.
About the Author
“The Transformation of Chinese Socialism is a visionary and critical reorientation for social theory. It is a great reminder of what the stakes are just now and why socialism, far from being defunct, has as much to offer governance theories and policy planners as it always has.”—Tani E. Barlow, author of The Question of Women in Chinese Feminism“While most people have already cast China as a capitalist country with a communist government, Lin Chun shows that there may be life in Chinese socialism yet. Combining erudition, passion, and an engaging writing style, Lin challenges a lot of conventional wisdom about China. This book should be on the shelf of everyone who has any interest in the course of the Chinese economy and society.”—Meghnad Desai, author of Marx’s Revenge: The Resurgence of Capitalism and the Death of Statist Socialism“With quite exceptional historical and theoretical insight, Lin Chun examines what remains of the Chinese Revolution’s socialist legacy and explores the prospects for the rebirth of a new kind of Chinese socialism in the People's Republic. This very original and thought-provoking study is essential reading for those concerned about the future of China and the fate of socialism in the age of capitalist globalization.”—Maurice Meisner, author of Mao’s China and After: A History of the People’s Republic
Table of Contents
Preface ix
Introduction: The Making and Remaking of the Chinese Model 1
1. China and Alternative Modernity 17
2. Chinese Socialism 60
3. People’s Democracy 132
4. Liberty and Liberation 205
Conclusion: Rethinking the Chinese Model 251
Notes 289
References 323
Index 359