China's Communist Revolutions Fifty Years of The People's Republic of China

This volume presents papers by international scholars on the economic, social and political environments out of which the PRC emerged and the socio-political impact of communist power since then. The contributions present interpretations of key aspects of reform such as economic structures, foreign policy and political change, and the socio-political impact of communist power. The book challenges the accepted orthodoxy about the Cultural Revolution. Throughout, the emphasis is on change in the context of 20th century China, and as part of the Chinese Communist Party's search for paths to development: hence the title that speaks in the plural about revolutions. This review of social and political change is highly topical in view of the PRC's recent 50th anniversary.

During its fifty years of existence the People's Republic of China has seen dramatic changes, from the proclamation of the independent state through the period of the Communist Revolution, the Cultural Revolution, the Reform Period. These changes are analysed from the political, economic and social points of view, chllaenging accepted orthodoxy. Throughout, the emphasis is on change in the context of contemporary China, and as part of the Chinese Communist Party's search for paths to development.

Preface 1. Revolution and Economic Life in Republican China: From WWI until 1949 2. Collapse of the Old Order, Germination of the New: Chinese Society during the Civil War, 1945-1949 3. The Politics of the Civil War: Party Rule, Territorial Administration and Constitutional Government 4. The Political Economy of Socialist Transition: Restructuring Inequality 5. China in the Wake of the Communist Revolution: Social Transformations, 1949-1966 6. The Cultural Revolution as an economic phenomenon 7. Is the Cultural Revolution Really Necessary? 8. Economic Growth and Distributive Justice in the Post-Mao Reform Period 9. China's Foreign Relations, 1978-1999: Unleashed, the Tiger Feels Lonely 10. Centre and Periphery after Twenty Years of Reform: Redefining the Chinese Polity List of Contributors

Werner Draguhn, David S.G. Goodman