Domination and Mobilization: The Rise and Fall of Political Parties in China's Republican Era
Examining the miraculous rise of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the surprising downfall of the Kuomintang (KMT) in the early twentieth century, Xiaobo Lü reveals that domination and mobilization are key for authoritarian parties to seize state power, challenging the prevailing wisdom on power-sharing and emphasizing the importance of dominant party leaders for organizational strength and resource mobilization. Lü convincingly argues that the CCP's mass mobilization infrastructure, initially seen as a disadvantage before the Sino-Japanese War, became a powerful asset during the war and led to its victory. The KMT's elite mobilization infrastructure, conversely, was decimated by the war, and its lack of a strong leader prevented a successful shift in party-building strategy. Party building subsequently played a pivotal role in shaping the successes and failures of resource mobilization for both parties. The book sheds new light on the origins of the CCP and the inner workings of revolutionary parties, making in a landmark study in Chinese politics.
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Domination and Mobilization: The Rise and Fall of Political Parties in China's Republican Era
Examining the miraculous rise of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the surprising downfall of the Kuomintang (KMT) in the early twentieth century, Xiaobo Lü reveals that domination and mobilization are key for authoritarian parties to seize state power, challenging the prevailing wisdom on power-sharing and emphasizing the importance of dominant party leaders for organizational strength and resource mobilization. Lü convincingly argues that the CCP's mass mobilization infrastructure, initially seen as a disadvantage before the Sino-Japanese War, became a powerful asset during the war and led to its victory. The KMT's elite mobilization infrastructure, conversely, was decimated by the war, and its lack of a strong leader prevented a successful shift in party-building strategy. Party building subsequently played a pivotal role in shaping the successes and failures of resource mobilization for both parties. The book sheds new light on the origins of the CCP and the inner workings of revolutionary parties, making in a landmark study in Chinese politics.
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Domination and Mobilization: The Rise and Fall of Political Parties in China's Republican Era

Domination and Mobilization: The Rise and Fall of Political Parties in China's Republican Era

by Xiaobo Lü
Domination and Mobilization: The Rise and Fall of Political Parties in China's Republican Era

Domination and Mobilization: The Rise and Fall of Political Parties in China's Republican Era

by Xiaobo Lü

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Overview

Examining the miraculous rise of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the surprising downfall of the Kuomintang (KMT) in the early twentieth century, Xiaobo Lü reveals that domination and mobilization are key for authoritarian parties to seize state power, challenging the prevailing wisdom on power-sharing and emphasizing the importance of dominant party leaders for organizational strength and resource mobilization. Lü convincingly argues that the CCP's mass mobilization infrastructure, initially seen as a disadvantage before the Sino-Japanese War, became a powerful asset during the war and led to its victory. The KMT's elite mobilization infrastructure, conversely, was decimated by the war, and its lack of a strong leader prevented a successful shift in party-building strategy. Party building subsequently played a pivotal role in shaping the successes and failures of resource mobilization for both parties. The book sheds new light on the origins of the CCP and the inner workings of revolutionary parties, making in a landmark study in Chinese politics.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781009588874
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Publication date: 08/14/2025
Pages: 280
Product dimensions: 6.50(w) x 1.50(h) x 9.50(d)

About the Author

Xiaobo Lü is Associate Professor of Government at the University of Texas, Austin. His research centers on distributive politics of fiscal policies and party building in authoritarian regimes, with a focus on China. Lü is particularly interested in how fiscal extraction shapes state-society relations and its implications on the evolution and functioning of authoritarian parties.

Table of Contents

1. The Reversal of Fortune of Revolutionary Parties; 2. A Theory of Party Building by Revolutionary Parties; 3. Prewar Resource Mobilization by the CCP and the KMT (1921–1937); 4: Reversal of Fortune: Wartime Resource Mobilization by the CCP and KMT (1937‒1945); 5. The CCP: Navigating Elite Power Conflicts and Struggling to Build a Mass Mobilization Infrastructure (1921‒1934); 6. Mao's Power Consolidation and the Emergence of a Rural Mobilization Infrastructure (1935–1945); 7. The KMT: Revolutionary Party Aborted; 8 The Legacies of Party-Building among Revolutionary Parties in China and Beyond.
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