These four conceptual and critical essays on state and society in
contemporary China argue vigorously against the grain of prevailing
scholarly interpretation. In substantive content, they explore two
major themes from different historical and theoretical points of
departure.
First, the author argues that the party/state under Mao fell far
short of the full control over China's peasant society that outside
observers often assumed it had achieved. She shows, instead, how
the Maoist state frequently pursued policies that in fact had the
ironic effect of strengthening the resistance of rural communities
against the central political apparatus. Second, she contends that
once the true limitations on the Maoist state's power in rural
areas are rightly understood, it becomes clear that one effect of
the post-Mao economic and political reforms may be to enhance
rather than to diminish the state's authority in the countryside --
despite all the reformists' rhetoric to the contrary.
These essays on "how to think about the Chinese state" are designed
to stimulate debate about assumptions and methods in the field of
Chinese political analysis. The controversies they raise, however,
make them highly relevant to scholars outside Chinese studies who
are interested in theories of the state, in the interrelations of
state and society, and in the fate of the peasantry under
socialism.
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