Russia and China: PostCommunism
Themes
• Globalization: liberalization (Washington Consensus)
– End corporatism in Mexico
– Implementation Four Modernizations China (Deng)
– Immigration + global culture
• “Red Oxen” in Mongolia
– Neo-Mercantilism: import substitution + export-driven growth
– Anti-globalization
• Democratization: post-communism
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“Color revolutions”: Ukraine, Lebanon
Nigeria, Mexico
“no representation w/o taxation”
Islamo-Fascism + Putinism
Communism
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• Soviet Union
• China
General Secretary
• Central Committee
– Secretariat (General Secretary; Hu
Politburo (Political Bureau)
Jintao, 2002)
Central Committee (ran Party
– Politburo + Standing Committee (24 /
+ gov’t in between
9)
Congresses)
– Central Military Commission (chair:
Hu, ’04; PLA 3rd “branch” of gov’t)
Party Congress (every 5 years;
• National People’s Congress
but none ’39-’52)
[every 5 years; “one party two
Party cell (any org. w/3+
factions”: Shanghai clique (rich,
Communists
urban) and populist coalition (rural,
Party ran the state; Party
Communist Youth League);
extra-legal
complementary, expertise, unity
achieved through patronage]
• President of the PRC (1982
Constitution; Hu, ‘03)
• State Council (top People’s
Government; Premier: Wen
Jiabao)
• Party bound by PRC Constitution,
“rule of law”
China
• USSR + Imperial China structure
– Bureaucratic admin., centralized control (but increasing
devolution; Hong Kong, Macau)
• “Mass Line”: “from the masses, to the masses”; peasants
as revolutionary (contra Marx + Lenin); investigate
conditions, listen to ideas, raise consciousness
• “Democratic centralism”: members subordinate to org.;
minority to majority; lower to higher; gov’t to Party; all to
Central Committee
– No private/indiv. interest, “people’s democratic dictatorship” no
organized opposition (non-CCP parties controlled by CCP;
“vanguard of the proletariat”); Party represents objective history
(Marxism/Maoism)
• “Harmony”: “harmonizing” (e.g. websites) = censorship;
Falun Gong; Tibet; Xianjiang province
Democratization in China
• Deng’s 4 Modernizations; esp. Special
Economic Zones
• Household responsibility system; Township and
Village Enterprises (TVE) “industrial clusters”
• Key: Industries allowed to exceed quotas, buy
and sell, reinvest
• 1989: Tiananmen Square protests
crackdown purge
• 2002: SARS
• 2008: Tibet vs. earthquake; economic slowdown
(crucial: trade off collapsing)
Communist Party Membership
Routes
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• Russia
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Cost-benefit: Purges vs.
Nomenklatura (list + class)
Young Pioneers
Komonsol (Young Communist •
League)
Communist Party membership
– 1986: 10% of pop.
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• China
Power = connections (Deng Xiaoping
post-”resignation”); Party networks; jobs
– BUT: ideology, desire to travel
overseas
Young Pioneers Communist Youth
League
– Shut down in Cultural Revolution,
replaced by Red Guards
Requires nomination existing member,
testing/assessment + probation period
70+ million members (largest party in
world)
– Only 17% of members are women
and 78% are over 35 years old,
though efforts are under way to
broaden its membership and attract
more young people
Democratization in Russia
• M. Gorbachev
• Perestroika (1987): political + economic “restructuring”:
multi-candidate (not party) elections, called Party
Conference; Law on State Enterprise: output based on
demand, private ownership certain sectors
• Glasnost: “openness;” get around apparatchiks (agent of
the apparatus)
• Secession crisis 1991 coup, Yeltsin gains power 26
December USSR dissolves Commonwealth
Independent States
• 1993: Yeltsin’s “shock therapy” crisis bombards
legis new structure (Federal Assembly) + increased
Pres power via referendum on Constitution
– How democratic was Yeltsin? Many of Putin’s actions expansion
Yeltsin