Andrew G. Walder
- Published in print:
- 1988
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520064706
- eISBN:
- 9780520909007
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520064706.003.0003
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Asian Cultural Anthropology
This chapter is concerned with the organizational characteristics that give the communist state the capacity to shape worker political association and activity in distinctive ways. Corporatism ...
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This chapter is concerned with the organizational characteristics that give the communist state the capacity to shape worker political association and activity in distinctive ways. Corporatism ideally seeks to manage the associated conflicts for the good of the nation; communism seeks to reorganize society in such a way that private interest groups cannot find organized expression or even a clear social identity. The Chinese party-state is represented in the factory by two organizations that shape political relationships and interests right down to the shop floor. The discretion exercised jointly by the shop director and party branch secretary appears to be a throwback to the foreman's empire of the contracting era of factory production in many parts of the world. The chapter then compares Stalinist and Maoist mobilization. The Chinese party appears genuinely to have viewed the moral cultivation of citizens as the only effective way to generate commitment and obedience.Less
This chapter is concerned with the organizational characteristics that give the communist state the capacity to shape worker political association and activity in distinctive ways. Corporatism ideally seeks to manage the associated conflicts for the good of the nation; communism seeks to reorganize society in such a way that private interest groups cannot find organized expression or even a clear social identity. The Chinese party-state is represented in the factory by two organizations that shape political relationships and interests right down to the shop floor. The discretion exercised jointly by the shop director and party branch secretary appears to be a throwback to the foreman's empire of the contracting era of factory production in many parts of the world. The chapter then compares Stalinist and Maoist mobilization. The Chinese party appears genuinely to have viewed the moral cultivation of citizens as the only effective way to generate commitment and obedience.
