Mao's Invisible Hand: The Political Foundations of Adaptive Governance in China

by Sebastian Heilmann, Elizabeth J. Perry, Jae Ho Chung, Nara Dillon, Joseph Fewsmith

Overview

Observers have been predicting the demise of China’s political system since Mao Zedong’s death over thirty years ago. The Chinese Communist state, however, seems to have become increasingly adept at responding to challenges ranging from leadership succession and popular unrest to administrative reorganization, legal institutionalization, and global economic integration. What political techniques and procedures have Chinese policymakers employed to manage the unsettling impact of the fastest sustained economic expansion in world history?

As the authors of these essays demonstrate, China’s political system allows for more diverse and flexible input than would be predicted from its formal structures. Many contemporary methods of governance have their roots in techniques of policy generation and implementation dating to the revolution and early PRC—techniques that emphasize continual experimentation. China’s long revolution had given rise to this guerrilla-style decisionmaking as a way of dealing creatively with pervasive uncertainty. Thus, even in a post-revolutionary PRC, the invisible hand of Chairman Mao—tamed, tweaked, and transformed—plays an important role in China’s adaptive governance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674060630
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	05/01/2011
Series:	Harvard Contemporary China Series , #17
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Sebastian Heilmann is Professor of Comparative Government and the Political Economy of China at the University of Trier.

Elizabeth J. Perry is Henry Rosovsky Professor of Government at Harvard University and Director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute.

Nara Dillon is a Lecturer in the Departments of Government and East Asian Studies at Harvard University.

Patricia M. Thornton is University Lecturer in the Politics of China at Oxford University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Contributors xi

List of Tables and Figures xii

Abbreviations xiii

1 Embracing Uncertainty: Guerrilla Policy Style and Adaptive Governance in China Sebastian Heilmann Elizabeth J. Perry 1

2 From Mass Campaigns to Managed Campaigns: "Constructing a New Socialist Countryside" Elizabeth J. Perry 30

3 Policy-Making through Experimentation: The Formation of a Distinctive Policy Process Sebastian Heilmann 62

4 Learning through Practice and Experimentation: The Financing of Rural Health Care Wang Shaoguang 102

5 Governing Civil Society: Adapting Revolutionary Methods to Serve Post-Communist Goals Nara Dillon 138

6 A Return to Populist Legality? Historical Legacies and Legal Reform Benjamin L. Liebman 165

7 Sustaining and Contesting Revolutionary Legacies in Media and Ideology Yuezhi Zhao 201

8 Retrofitting the Steel Frame: From Mobilizing the Masses to Surveying the Public Patricia M. Thornton 237

9 The Elusive Search for Effective Sub-County Governance Joseph Fawsmith 269

10 Central-Local Dynamics: Historical Continuities and Institutional Resilience Jae Ho Chung 297

Editorial Reviews

Mao’s Invisible Hand is one of those books that make one feel good about scholarship. It describes inner workings of Chinese Communist society about which few nonexperts know anything—it may even surprise the experts—and it will interest anyone professionally interested in China. Its central purpose is to explain how China has escaped the disintegration of other Communist states.

New York Review of Books - Jonathan Mirsky

One of the most sophisticated works of this sort.

Miller-McCune.com - Jeffrey Wasserstrom

This is one of the most insightful and thought-provoking books published in recent years on the critical questions about China’s developmental path and the role of history.

China Beat - Chen Xi

Mao's Invisible Hand is one of those books that make one feel good about scholarship. It describes inner workings of Chinese Communist society about which few nonexperts know anything—it may even surprise the experts—and it will interest anyone professionally interested in China. Its central purpose is to explain how China has escaped the disintegration of other Communist states.
— Jonathan Mirsky

New York Review of Books

This is one of the most insightful and thought-provoking books published in recent years on the critical questions about China's developmental path and the role of history.
— Chen Xi

The China Beat

One of the most sophisticated works of this sort.
— Jeffrey Wasserstrom

Miller-McCune.com