Breaking the vicious cycles: The emergence of China's national people's congress

Problems of Post-Communism

Volumn 45, Issue 3, 1998, Pages 29-47

  Tanner, Murray Scot ^a   Ke, Chen ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0032339184     PISSN: 10758216     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/10758216.1998.11655787     Document Type: Article

References (48)

1. The apt metaphor was coined during a recent talk at Harvard by the Chinese law scholar Stanley Lubman, who, we hope, will forgive our appropriation of it.
2. On political cycles in reform-era politics, see Richard Baum, Burying Mao (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994); Tang Tsou, "The Middle Course," in The Cultural Revolution and Post-Mao Reforms: A Historical Perspective, ed. Tang Tsou (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986); and Merle Goldman, Sowing the Seeds of Democracy in China (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996). For a classic discussion of cycles in Maoistera politics, see G. William Skinner and Edwin Winckler, "Compliance Succession in Rural Communist China: A Cyclical Theory," in Complex Organizations: A Sociological Reader, 2d ed., ed. Amitai Etzioni (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1969), pp. 410-38; see also, of course, John King Fairbank, The United States and China, 4th ed. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984), for its classic discussion of imperial dynastic cycles. On the cyclical qualities of reform in other countries, see Samuel P. Huntington, Political Order in Changing Societies (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968), chap. 6; and Michel Oksenberg and Bruce J. Dickson, "The Origins, Process, and Outcomes of Great Political Reform: A Framework for Analysis," in Comparative Political Dynamics: Global Research Perspectives, ed. Dankwart A. Rustow (New York: HarperCollins, 1991).
3. On political cycles in reform-era politics, see Richard Baum, Burying Mao (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994); Tang Tsou, "The Middle Course," in The Cultural Revolution and Post-Mao Reforms: A Historical Perspective, ed. Tang Tsou (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986); and Merle Goldman, Sowing the Seeds of Democracy in China (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996). For a classic discussion of cycles in Maoistera politics, see G. William Skinner and Edwin Winckler, "Compliance Succession in Rural Communist China: A Cyclical Theory," in Complex Organizations: A Sociological Reader, 2d ed., ed. Amitai Etzioni (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1969), pp. 410-38; see also, of course, John King Fairbank, The United States and China, 4th ed. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984), for its classic discussion of imperial dynastic cycles. On the cyclical qualities of reform in other countries, see Samuel P. Huntington, Political Order in Changing Societies (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968), chap. 6; and Michel Oksenberg and Bruce J. Dickson, "The Origins, Process, and Outcomes of Great Political Reform: A Framework for Analysis," in Comparative Political Dynamics: Global Research Perspectives, ed. Dankwart A. Rustow (New York: HarperCollins, 1991).
4. On political cycles in reform-era politics, see Richard Baum, Burying Mao (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994); Tang Tsou, "The Middle Course," in The Cultural Revolution and Post-Mao Reforms: A Historical Perspective, ed. Tang Tsou (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986); and Merle Goldman, Sowing the Seeds of Democracy in China (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996). For a classic discussion of cycles in Maoistera politics, see G. William Skinner and Edwin Winckler, "Compliance Succession in Rural Communist China: A Cyclical Theory," in Complex Organizations: A Sociological Reader, 2d ed., ed. Amitai Etzioni (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1969), pp. 410-38; see also, of course, John King Fairbank, The United States and China, 4th ed. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984), for its classic discussion of imperial dynastic cycles. On the cyclical qualities of reform in other countries, see Samuel P. Huntington, Political Order in Changing Societies (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968), chap. 6; and Michel Oksenberg and Bruce J. Dickson, "The Origins, Process, and Outcomes of Great Political Reform: A Framework for Analysis," in Comparative Political Dynamics: Global Research Perspectives, ed. Dankwart A. Rustow (New York: HarperCollins, 1991).
5. On political cycles in reform-era politics, see Richard Baum, Burying Mao (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994); Tang Tsou, "The Middle Course," in The Cultural Revolution and Post-Mao Reforms: A Historical Perspective, ed. Tang Tsou (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986); and Merle Goldman, Sowing the Seeds of Democracy in China (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996). For a classic discussion of cycles in Maoistera politics, see G. William Skinner and Edwin Winckler, "Compliance Succession in Rural Communist China: A Cyclical Theory," in Complex Organizations: A Sociological Reader, 2d ed., ed. Amitai Etzioni (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1969), pp. 410-38; see also, of course, John King Fairbank, The United States and China, 4th ed. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984), for its classic discussion of imperial dynastic cycles. On the cyclical qualities of reform in other countries, see Samuel P. Huntington, Political Order in Changing Societies (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968), chap. 6; and Michel Oksenberg and Bruce J. Dickson, "The Origins, Process, and Outcomes of Great Political Reform: A Framework for Analysis," in Comparative Political Dynamics: Global Research Perspectives, ed. Dankwart A. Rustow (New York: HarperCollins, 1991).
6. On political cycles in reform-era politics, see Richard Baum, Burying Mao (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994); Tang Tsou, "The Middle Course," in The Cultural Revolution and Post-Mao Reforms: A Historical Perspective, ed. Tang Tsou (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986); and Merle Goldman, Sowing the Seeds of Democracy in China (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996). For a classic discussion of cycles in Maoistera politics, see G. William Skinner and Edwin Winckler, "Compliance Succession in Rural Communist China: A Cyclical Theory," in Complex Organizations: A Sociological Reader, 2d ed., ed. Amitai Etzioni (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1969), pp. 410-38; see also, of course, John King Fairbank, The United States and China, 4th ed. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984), for its classic discussion of imperial dynastic cycles. On the cyclical qualities of reform in other countries, see Samuel P. Huntington, Political Order in Changing Societies (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968), chap. 6; and Michel Oksenberg and Bruce J. Dickson, "The Origins, Process, and Outcomes of Great Political Reform: A Framework for Analysis," in Comparative Political Dynamics: Global Research Perspectives, ed. Dankwart A. Rustow (New York: HarperCollins, 1991).
7. On political cycles in reform-era politics, see Richard Baum, Burying Mao (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994); Tang Tsou, "The Middle Course," in The Cultural Revolution and Post-Mao Reforms: A Historical Perspective, ed. Tang Tsou (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986); and Merle Goldman, Sowing the Seeds of Democracy in China (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996). For a classic discussion of cycles in Maoistera politics, see G. William Skinner and Edwin Winckler, "Compliance Succession in Rural Communist China: A Cyclical Theory," in Complex Organizations: A Sociological Reader, 2d ed., ed. Amitai Etzioni (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1969), pp. 410-38; see also, of course, John King Fairbank, The United States and China, 4th ed. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984), for its classic discussion of imperial dynastic cycles. On the cyclical qualities of reform in other countries, see Samuel P. Huntington, Political Order in Changing Societies (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968), chap. 6; and Michel Oksenberg and Bruce J. Dickson, "The Origins, Process, and Outcomes of Great Political Reform: A Framework for Analysis," in Comparative Political Dynamics: Global Research Perspectives, ed. Dankwart A. Rustow (New York: HarperCollins, 1991).
8. On political cycles in reform-era politics, see Richard Baum, Burying Mao (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994); Tang Tsou, "The Middle Course," in The Cultural Revolution and Post-Mao Reforms: A Historical Perspective, ed. Tang Tsou (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986); and Merle Goldman, Sowing the Seeds of Democracy in China (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996). For a classic discussion of cycles in Maoistera politics, see G. William Skinner and Edwin Winckler, "Compliance Succession in Rural Communist China: A Cyclical Theory," in Complex Organizations: A Sociological Reader, 2d ed., ed. Amitai Etzioni (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1969), pp. 410-38; see also, of course, John King Fairbank, The United States and China, 4th ed. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984), for its classic discussion of imperial dynastic cycles. On the cyclical qualities of reform in other countries, see Samuel P. Huntington, Political Order in Changing Societies (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968), chap. 6; and Michel Oksenberg and Bruce J. Dickson, "The Origins, Process, and Outcomes of Great Political Reform: A Framework for Analysis," in Comparative Political Dynamics: Global Research Perspectives, ed. Dankwart A. Rustow (New York: HarperCollins, 1991).
9. On the openings and reversals of the Maoist era, see Kevin O'Brien, Reform Without Liberalization (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990); Murray Scot Tanner, The Politics of Lawmaking in China (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998).
10. On the openings and reversals of the Maoist era, see Kevin O'Brien, Reform Without Liberalization (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990); Murray Scot Tanner, The Politics of Lawmaking in China (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998).
11. Roderick MacFarquhar, Origins of the Cultural Revolution, vol. 1 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1974); Merle Goldman, China's Intellectuals, Advise and Dissent (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1981); Kenneth Lieberthal, "The Great Leap Forward and the Split in the Yenan Leadership," in Cambridge History of China, vol. 14, ed. Denis Twitchett and John K. Fairbank (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987), pp. 293-359; and O'Brien, Reform Without Liberalization.
12. Roderick MacFarquhar, Origins of the Cultural Revolution, vol. 1 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1974); Merle Goldman, China's Intellectuals, Advise and Dissent (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1981); Kenneth Lieberthal, "The Great Leap Forward and the Split in the Yenan Leadership," in Cambridge History of China, vol. 14, ed. Denis Twitchett and John K. Fairbank (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987), pp. 293-359; and O'Brien, Reform Without Liberalization.
13. Roderick MacFarquhar, Origins of the Cultural Revolution, vol. 1 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1974); Merle Goldman, China's Intellectuals, Advise and Dissent (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1981); Kenneth Lieberthal, "The Great Leap Forward and the Split in the Yenan Leadership," in Cambridge History of China, vol. 14, ed. Denis Twitchett and John K. Fairbank (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987), pp. 293-359; and O'Brien, Reform Without Liberalization.
14. Roderick MacFarquhar, Origins of the Cultural Revolution, vol. 1 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1974); Merle Goldman, China's Intellectuals, Advise and Dissent (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1981); Kenneth Lieberthal, "The Great Leap Forward and the Split in the Yenan Leadership," in Cambridge History of China, vol. 14, ed. Denis Twitchett and John K. Fairbank (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987), pp. 293-359; and O'Brien, Reform Without Liberalization.
15. Murray Scot Tanner, "The Erosion of Communist Party Control Over Law-making in China," China Quarterly, no. 138 (June 1994): 381-404; Tanner,"How a Bill Becomes a Law: Stages and Processes in Law-making," China Quarterly, no. 141 (March 1995): 39-64; Tanner, "Organizations and Politics in China's Post-Mao Law-Making System," in Domestic Law Reforms in Post-Mao China, ed. Pitman B. Potter (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1993), pp. 56-93; and Tanner, "Law in China: The Terra Incognita of Political Studies," China Exchange News (winter 1994): 20-24.
16. Murray Scot Tanner, "The Erosion of Communist Party Control Over Law-making in China," China Quarterly, no. 138 (June 1994): 381-404; Tanner,"How a Bill Becomes a Law: Stages and Processes in Law-making," China Quarterly, no. 141 (March 1995): 39-64; Tanner, "Organizations and Politics in China's Post-Mao Law-Making System," in Domestic Law Reforms in Post-Mao China, ed. Pitman B. Potter (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1993), pp. 56-93; and Tanner, "Law in China: The Terra Incognita of Political Studies," China Exchange News (winter 1994): 20-24.
17. Murray Scot Tanner, "The Erosion of Communist Party Control Over Law-making in China," China Quarterly, no. 138 (June 1994): 381-404; Tanner,"How a Bill Becomes a Law: Stages and Processes in Law-making," China Quarterly, no. 141 (March 1995): 39-64; Tanner, "Organizations and Politics in China's Post-Mao Law-Making System," in Domestic Law Reforms in Post-Mao China, ed. Pitman B. Potter (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1993), pp. 56-93; and Tanner, "Law in China: The Terra Incognita of Political Studies," China Exchange News (winter 1994): 20-24.
18. Murray Scot Tanner, "The Erosion of Communist Party Control Over Law-making in China," China Quarterly, no. 138 (June 1994): 381-404; Tanner,"How a Bill Becomes a Law: Stages and Processes in Law-making," China Quarterly, no. 141 (March 1995): 39-64; Tanner, "Organizations and Politics in China's Post-Mao Law-Making System," in Domestic Law Reforms in Post-Mao China, ed. Pitman B. Potter (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1993), pp. 56-93; and Tanner, "Law in China: The Terra Incognita of Political Studies," China Exchange News (winter 1994): 20-24.
19. The term is from Harry Harding, China's Second Revolution: Reform After Mao (Washington: Brookings Institution, 1987).
20. Murray Scot Tanner, "Building a Legislature that Counts: Bureaucratic and Subcommittee Development in China's National People's Congress" (paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, Los Angeles, March 1993).
21. John P. Burns, "Strengthening Central CCP Control of Leadership Selection: The 1990 Nomenklatura," China Quarterly, no. 138 (June 1994): 476.
22. Lucian Pye, The Mandarin and the Cadre (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, Center for Chinese Studies, 1988).
23. Martin King Whyte, "Prospects for Democratization in China," Problems of Communism 41, no. 3 (May-June 1992): 58-70.
24. Andrew J. Nathan and Tianjian Shi, "Cultural Requisites for Democracy in China: Findings from a Survey," Daedalus 122, no. 2 (spring 1993): 95-123, esp. 111-13.
25. For discussion of the proto-democratic aspects of China's political culture, see Whyte, "Prospects for Democratization in China."
26. Pye, The Mandarin and the Cadre.
27. Andrew J. Nathan, "Chinese Democracy: The Lessons of Failure," Journal of Contemporary China, no. 4 (fall 1993): 3-13.
28. Andrew J. Nathan, Chinese Democracy (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Random House, 1985).
29. On Wan Li, see Renmin ribao (August 15, 1986); on Qiao Shi and Tian Jiyun, see Renmin ribao (September 16, 1994). See also South China Morning Post (September 16, 1994);
30. On Wan Li, see Renmin ribao (August 15, 1986); on Qiao Shi and Tian Jiyun, see Renmin ribao (September 16, 1994). See also South China Morning Post (September 16, 1994);
31. On Wan Li, see Renmin ribao (August 15, 1986); on Qiao Shi and Tian Jiyun, see Renmin ribao (September 16, 1994). See also South China Morning Post (September 16, 1994);
32. Xinhua News Agency (September 15, 1994);
33. Qiao discussed these issues in detail in an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer (December 13, 1996).
34. I am indebted to Merle Goldman for providing me with a copy of the original interview. See also Tian Jiyun's speech summarized in South China Morning Post (September 13, 1994).
35. Tanner, "The Erosion of Central Party Control Over Law-making."
36. This information comes from interviews with legislative scholars who advise the NPC Standing Committee, Beijing, 1992, 1995.
37. NPC Standing Committee General Research Office, Zhonghua renmin gongheguo renmin daibiao dahui wenxian ziliao huibian 1949-1990 (A Collection of Documentary Materials on the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China) (Beijing: Zhongguo minzhu fazhi chubanshe, 1990), pp. 855-57. For many years now, this data on motions has also been reported in the annual NPC Standing Committee Work Report, delivered by the secretary general at each annual session. I have used these reports to fill in the data for the years since 1990. The text of this annual report may be found in a number of places, including Foreign Broadcast Information Service translations and the annual Zhongguo falü nianjian (Law Yearbook of China) (Beijing: Falü chubanshe).
38. NPC Standing Committee General Research Office, Zhonghua renmin gongheguo renmin daibiao dahui wenxian ziliao huibian 1949-1990 (A Collection of Documentary Materials on the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China) (Beijing: Zhongguo minzhu fazhi chubanshe, 1990), pp. 855-57. For many years now, this data on motions has also been reported in the annual NPC Standing Committee Work Report, delivered by the secretary general at each annual session. I have used these reports to fill in the data for the years since 1990. The text of this annual report may be found in a number of places, including Foreign Broadcast Information Service translations and the annual Zhongguo falü nianjian (Law Yearbook of China) (Beijing: Falü chubanshe).
39. Chen Ke is to be commended for his remarkably dedicated and resourceful job of research assistance, helping to locate these voting data from a variety of sources.
40. Song Rufen, Canjia lifa gongzuo suoji (Scattered Recollections on My Participation in Lawmaking Work), 2 vols. (Beijing: Zhongguo fazhi chubanshe, 1994).
41. For both of these laws, the sources could not report exact percentages. So, in Table 4, they are simply reported as 51 percent dissenting votes, the minimum possible estimate.
42. R.R. Palmer, The Age of the Democratic Revolutions: A Political History of Europe and America, 1760-1800, vol. 1 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1959).
43. Amy B. Epstein, "Village Elections in China: Experimenting with Democracy," in U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee, China's Economic Future, Challenges to U.S. Policy: Study Papers (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1996), pp. 403-22.
44. Kevin O'Brien, "Agents to Remonstrators," China Quarterly, no. 138 (June 1994): 359-80.
45. Vivien Pik-Kwan Chan, "Officials Informed Reforms Postponed Until at Least 2002," South China Morning Post (February 25, 1996): 5.
46. South China Morning Post (October 21, 1997): 19.
47. Alfred Meyer,"Communism and Leadership," Studies in Comparative Communism 16, no. 3 (1983): 161-70.
48. The alleged struggle over the new NPC leadership was principally reported in a series of articles by Willy Wo-Lap Lam in the South China Morning Post(October 3, 15, 26, 29; November 13, 16, 22; and December 4, 1997).