Political reform in China in the 1990s: Implications for the future

Abstract

Chinese political reform in the 1980s was concentrated largely on reversing many of the affects of the Cultural Revolution, such as the "personality cult" and the attitutde of "what I say goes." and improving efficiency through streamlining admininstration and delegating power to the lower levels. The reforms of that decade demonstrate a certain passivity and vacillation. In comparison, the political reforms enacted in the 1990s tended to be theoretically conscious, entailing a progressive advancing political reform, which promoted change at many levels, concerning relationship between micro and macro, central and local, and state and society. Autonomy, internationality, and progressiveness were the key characteristics of Chinese political reform in the 1990s. In the near future, political reform in China will begin storming age-old fortifications, and only through uninterrupted institutional innovation can China effectively avoid a cataclysin fron am "explosion of participation."