China's Party Congress: Power, Legitimacy, and Institutional Manipulation

by Guoguang Wu

Nominally the highest decision-making body in the Chinese Communist Party, the Party Congress is responsible for determining party policy and the selection of China's leaders. Guoguang Wu provides the first analysis of how the Party Congress operates to elect Party leadership and decide Party policy, and explores why such a formal performance of congress meetings, delegate discussions, and non-democratic elections is significant for authoritarian politics more broadly. Taking institutional inconsistency as the central research question, this study presents a new theory of 'mutual contextualization' to reveal how informal politics and formal institutions interact with each other. Wu argues that despite the prevalence of informal politics behind the scenes, authoritarian politics seeks legitimization through a combination of political manipulation and the ritual mobilization of formal institutions. This ambitious book is essential reading for all those interested in understanding contemporary China, and an innovative theoretical contribution to the study of comparative politics.

Genres: China, Politics

380 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2015

Reviews

[akinakina · Rating 5 out of 5]

读的中文版

[Kevin_Raccoon · Rating 5 out of 5]

#豆瓣已删条目# 制度操纵与确认性合法性

[Young Olive · Rating 4 out of 5]

在二十大之前，读一读这本介绍党代会的书
话说，其实是看到推特上推荐才读的，有点意思。
通过党代会确认权力，但是党代会本身可能并没有其他实质权力，没有争辩，大家一同鼓掌吧，精彩的，是在党代会之前。

[Hippo · Rating 5 out of 5]

港中文中文版。同时对比较政治学和中国政治研究的贡献。