| dc.description.abstract | MAO'S CHINA: NATION-STATE, PARTY-STATE, EMPIRE?
A Study of Mao's Nation-Building
The process of Mao's state/nation-building including the political control, national unification, and redistribution of wealth -- a unity of land, army and people -- was, to some extent, similar to the process of state/nation-building in Western Europe during the last century. This raises a question of fundamental importance: Can Mao's China Be Describedas a Nation-State? To answer this question we need not only to understand how Mao's China was built, operated and developed from 1949 to 1976,we also need to work out a theoretical framework of Mao's China and a definition of the nation-state in a Chinese context. After 1949, Mao carried out the process of state-building. The state was under the control of the Communist Party. This characteristic does not belong to the modern nation-state as we know it from Western Europe. Maybe Mao's China also could be described as a party-state. However, from 1949 to 1976, China had one leader with extensive power totally dominating the Party, a situation that corresponds to Hegel's view when he described oriental despotism: "the Eastern nations knew only that one is free" (1956: 19). Mao Zedong was such a man who could be said to actually dominate the whole of China. All other Party members had to follow and did follow his words. In this sense, Mao's China may also be described as an empire. The question about Mao's China as a nation- state should accordingly be supplemented with the following question : Can Mao 's China Be Described as a Nation-State, or Party-State, orEmpire, orNone of the Above? In the thesis, I will, however, mainly deal with the first question, but none of them can be totally separated from the two others.
Theor etical Pers pectives
In the theoretical chapter, I proceed by looking into the two major political traditions in China and Europe, focusing on to what extent Mao inherited the Chinese Legalism and Confucianism, and how Mao combined these two with Marxism and Leninism, namely Lenin's proletarian dictatorship and Marx' communist society. It explores theoretical literature and explanations of empire, party-state and nation-state and its associated central concepts such as state, nation and nationalism. Rokkan's theory of state/nation building will be mainly used to analyse the process of Mao's state/nation-building. War, however, both the Anti-Japanese War and the Civil War played a crucial role in Mao's state/nation-building. Therefore, I will bring the theory of war provided by Carl won Clausewitz, Michael Howard and Charles Tilly into my discussion. structure of the Thesis This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter One (Introduction) is a brief presentation of the object of the study, the theoretical perspectives, the methodological approaches as well as the sources.
Chapter Two starts with a discussion of the differences and similarities between the major Chinese and European political traditions, including a brief presentation of Marx's, Lenin's and Mao Zedong's political thoughts. This theoretical chapter continues with a discussion on empire, nation-state, nationalism and Rokkan's theory of state/nation building.
Chapter Three presents a brief political history of China from the Opium War (1839-42) to the victory of Mao's revolution (1949). It will give a general picture of how the Chinese responded to the West; whythe Chinese intellectual elite accepted Marxism and Leninism as the national ideology; how Mao became a patriotic leader; and how the Communist Party became the vanguard of the revolution. Besides, I will discuss what kind of role the Anti-Japanese War and the Civil War played in Mao's state/nation building.
In Chapter Four, I will focus the attention on Mao's state/nation-building process. This chapter consists of four parts divided by Rokkan's four phases: penetration, standardization, participation and redistribution. Here, I will use Rokkan's model and suggest that Mao's China could be described in the similar way as he described the European nation-state during the last century.
In Chapter Five, which is the concluding chapter, I will argue that China only partly can be described as a nation-state. China may also be characterized as a party-state as well as an empire with Mao as an emperor. In other words, Mao's China cannot be described merely as a nation-state, or a party-state or an empire, but as the combination of the three. The challenging -- and daunting -- task is then to show how these three concepts can be employed to explain the Chinese political process in Mao's period, and to show how the inter-linkages between them can be identified and analyzed. | nor |