Chinese politics and government

1. Discuss how these factors, such as Confucian culture, a century of foreign invasions and historical trauma, influence of the Russian communist revolution, Marxist-Leninist ideological totalism, and the May 4th Movement, contribute to the rise of communism in modern China? (5 points each dimension – 25 points)

2. Chinese political development has demonstrated a pattern dominated by power, ideology, and organization. What are the nature and characteristics of power, ideology, and organization in traditional China and contemporary China? In this essay, you are asked to explain similarities and differences in power, ideology, and organization between traditional China and contemporary China. (25 points)

3. What is a Leninist party-state? (4 points) What would constitute the “hard core” of a Leninist party-state that distinguishes itself from a regular authoritarian regime? (4 points) What might be the operative features of Leninist party-state? (4 points) What is the relationship between the hard core and the operative features of a political regime? (4 points) What is the distinction between a generic change and a developmental change? (4 points) How useful is this distinction in the study of regime change? (5 points)

4. Since the late 1970s, some considerable changes have taken place in post-Mao China. Has the post-Mao regime moved away from communist state or continued to retain the hard core of ideas and institutions of communist state. In other words, is it change of regime or change within the regime? Your work must involve careful development of your logical arguments, using clearly defined theoretical criteria of communist party state as the reference points for the evaluation and drawing upon empirical evidence to support your arguments. Your analysis must be conducted along two major empirical dimensions of China’s political development: ideological and political (12.5 points each).