This 1994 book examines the relationship between the Communist political elite and the largely anti-Communist intellectual elite during the decade of reform (1977-89). The author, who was a participant in these events, shows how the Deng Xiaoping regime precipitated a legitimacy crisis by encouraging economic reform while preventing political reform, and how the intellectual elite used this situation to increase its own power. The book also offers a theoretical model to explain how a political resistance movement could gain power in a nation that does not have a well-developed civil society. The concept of 'institutional parasitism' shows that rather than developing separate institutions, the anti-Communist intellectuals occupied state structures from which oppositional activity was carried out. The book will be of interest to both scholars of China and students of comparative Communism.

Book Information
ISBN 9780521451383
Author X. L. Ding
Format Hardback
Page Count 248
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 540g