Losing consent – the evolution of the danwei management policies from a Maoist perspective

Abstract

ABSTRACT The danwei (work unit) system is a unique political and economic institution in China; inside a danwei, all aspects of workers’ activities are taken care of. The transformations of the danwei system’s management have long been a hot topic in academia. Many scholars have shared their views on understanding the transformations of the danwei’s management. However, very few of them have understood danwei’s management transformations from the perspective of Mao Zedong. Mao, as one of the most important founders of the danwei system, had conducted numerous studies on Marxist theories and Soviet practices of socialist enterprise management and had formed a unique understanding of how a genuine socialist enterprise operates. By setting up a triangular comparison model, this article compares Maoist thoughts on management with danwei’s management policies before and after 1978. This article concludes that, from a Maoist perspective, the pre-1978 danwei system had set up a management system in which workers drew their ‘self-generated consent’ through democratic mechanisms. In contrast, the post-1978 danwei management has abnegated most of the democratic mechanisms and replaced workers’ ‘self-generated consent’ with cadre-controlled ‘manufactured consent.’ The entire danwei system is gradually ‘losing its consent’ from the working class unless multiple reform initiatives take place in the future.