The Nuts and Bolts of the Chinese Political System

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The Nuts and Bolts of the Chinese Political
System

• Bruce DicksonGeorge Washington University

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The Chinese Communist Party
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The Chinese Communist Party

• 78 million members
• About 6 of population

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The Chinese Communist Party

• 78 million members
• About 6 of population
• Criteria for recruitment
• Education
• Age
• Gender
• Urban bias

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The Chinese Communist Party

• 78 million members
• About 6 of population
• Criteria for recruitment
• Education
• Age
• Gender
• Urban bias
• Most key positions held by CCP members

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Central Party Institutions
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Central Party Institutions
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Central Party Institutions
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Central Party Institutions
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Central Party Institutions
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CCP General Secretary HU Jintao
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Political Generations in China
Mao Zedong
Deng Xiaoping
Jiang Zemin
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Fourth Generation
Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao
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Fifth Generation
Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang
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Chinese Political System
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Chinese legislators at work
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Chinese legislators at work
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Chinese legislators at work
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Chinese Political System
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Prime Minister WEN Jiabao
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Chinese Political System
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Chinese Political System
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CCPs bid for legitimacy

• Performance Legitimacy
• Growth

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Chinas Economic Growth, 1980-2009
Growth
Per Capita GDP
Per Capita GDP
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CCPs bid for legitimacy

• Performance Legitimacy
• Growth
• Nationalism
• Pride in economic accomplishments and growing
  role in international community
• Preserve national unity
• Century of humiliation

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CCPs bid for legitimacy

• Performance Legitimacy
• Growth
• Nationalism
• Maintain political order
• Traditional concern for stability
• Rising protests around country

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Challenges to CCPs legitimacy

• Economic
• Inequality
• Corruption
• Pollution
• Rising aspirations?
• Nationalism
• Both elite driven and popular nationalism
• Order
• Most protests are direct if unintended
  consequence of pro-growth policies
• How to balance growth and stability?

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CCPs Strategy for Survival

• Coercion
• A hallmark of any authoritarian regime
• But costly

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CCPs Strategy for Survival

• Coercion
• Co-optation
• Potential threats
• New talent needed for policy goals
• Chinese universities are now main recruitment
  areas for CCP
• Three Represents

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CCPs Strategy for Survival

• Coercion
• Co-optation
• Limit the flow of information
• Media
• Internet
• Prevent their use for political purposes, but
  make them available for leisure and especially
  economic purposes

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CCPs Strategy for Survival

• Coercion
• Co-optation
• Limit the flow of information
• Raise the cost of collective action
• CCP monopoly on political organization
• Protests are local, material demands

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Prospects for change

• Despite the many problems linked to economic
  development, CCP remains popular
• Most Chinese optimistic about future
• No viable alternative
• Will change come from within the party or from
  society?