Party Leadership and Revolutionary Power in China

Contemporary China Institute Publications

by John W. Lewis (Editor)

Originally published in 1970, this volume consists of essays by twelve leading scholars from the United States and Britain, all of whom concentrated their studies on the problems of China. Their papers were originally written for a conference on the Chinese Communist Party, held at Ditchley Park, England, in July 1968. During the discussions, a number of themes emerged as the factors governing the evolution of the Party. These related to problems of leadership, power and the revolutionary struggle within the Party and their effect on Chinese society. The authors subsequently revised their papers, highlighting these problems within the realm of their own subject, ranging from the power elite and the Central Committee to the village leadership and the role of the Army. The editor, in his introduction, throws further light on the leadership and power struggle, on Mao's role and on the effects of the Great Cultural Revolution.

422 pages, Paperback

First published July 2, 1970

About the author

Dr. John Wilson Lewis was an American political scientist who taught at Cornell University (Ithaca, New York) from 1961 to 1968. In 1968 he joined the faculty of Stanford University (Stanford, California), where he became the William Haas Professor of Chinese Politics. While at Stanford he became founding director of the Center for East Asian Studies, serving until 1970 when he, along with the theoretical physicist Professor Sidney D. Drell, co-founded Stanford’s Center for International Security and Arms Control, which in 1983 became the Center for International Security and Cooperation. He served as a co-director of the latter until 1991. From 1983 to 1990, Professor Lewis headed the Northeast Asia-United States Forum on International Policy (now the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center).