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2 - The Chinese State and the Chinese Bureaucracy: A Weberian Lens

from Part I - The Logic of Governance: Institutions and Mechanisms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2022

Xueguang Zhou
Xueguang Zhou
Affiliation:
Stanford University, California
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Summary

Only bureaucracy has established the foundation for the administration of a rational law.

Max Weber (1946, p. 216)

Cadres are a decisive factor, once the political line is determined …

Mao Zedong (1991, p. 526)
To examine the logic of governance in China, we begin with an inquiry into the relationship between the Chinese state and the Chinese bureaucracy. As outlined in Chapter 1, governance in China has been characterized by the encompassing role of the central authority, whose power is uninhibited and whose reach is unlimited over its people and its vast territory. In Chinese history, the Chinese bureaucracy provided the organizational basis for the state to exercise its power. In the People’s Republic of China since 1949, the Chinese bureaucracy has undergone considerable transformation to become the organizational weapon of the party-state and to become entrenched in all corners of the society. For ordinary citizens today, the Chinese bureaucracy is the Chinese state.

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The Logic of Governance in China
An Organizational Approach
 , pp. 31 - 52
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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