Observers have been predicting the demise of China's political system since Mao Zedong's death over thirty years ago. The Chinese Communist state, however, seems to have become increasingly adept at responding to challenges ranging from leadership succession and popular unrest to administrative reorganization, legal institutionalization, and global economic integration. What political techniques and procedures have Chinese policymakers employed to manage the unsettling impact of the fastest sustained economic expansion in world history?

As the authors of these essays demonstrate, China's political system allows for more diverse and flexible input than would be predicted from its formal structures. Many contemporary methods of governance have their roots in techniques of policy generation and implementation dating to the revolution and early PRC-techniques that emphasize continual experimentation. China's long revolution had given rise to this guerrilla-style decisionmaking as a way of dealing creatively with pervasive uncertainty. Thus, even in a post-revolutionary PRC, the invisible hand of Chairman Mao-tamed, tweaked, and transformed-plays an important role in China's adaptive governance.

About the Author
Sebastian Heilmann is Professor of Comparative Government and the Political Economy of China at the University of Trier. Elizabeth J. Perry is Henry Rosovsky Professor of Government at Harvard University and Director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute. Nara Dillon is a Lecturer in the Departments of Government and East Asian Studies at Harvard University. Patricia M. Thornton is University Lecturer in the Politics of China at Oxford University.

Reviews
Mao's Invisible Hand is one of those books that make one feel good about scholarship. It describes inner workings of Chinese Communist society about which few nonexperts know anything-it may even surprise the experts-and it will interest anyone professionally interested in China. Its central purpose is to explain how China has escaped the disintegration of other Communist states. -- Jonathan Mirsky * New York Review of Books *
This is one of the most insightful and thought-provoking books published in recent years on the critical questions about China's developmental path and the role of history. -- Chen Xi * China Beat *
One of the most sophisticated works of this sort. -- Jeffrey Wasserstrom * Miller-McCune.com *



Book Information
ISBN 9780674060630
Author Sebastian Heilmann
Format Paperback
Page Count 336
Imprint Harvard University, Asia Center
Publisher Harvard University, Asia Center