Socialist Agenda Research Articles

Some Reflections on Crisis of the Left in India

The Indian left is facing a deep rooted crisis. The left in India tends to explain this crisis by way of the decisive changes that happened in the phase of globalization, but the real nature of the crisis is ideological and is rooted and reflected in the movement well before. We will argue that globalization aggravated this crisis leading to a downturn in the movement. This ideological crisis is reflected in the theory and practice of India’s various left parties and groups on the socialist agenda, including their understanding of social change, characterization of Indian society and class relations, understanding of capitalist development, understanding of the nature of the state, understanding of the structure and functioning of imperialism and its linkage and impacts on Indian society and class relations, and strategies of socialist transformation of Indian society including the anti-imperialist agenda. This paper will present a brief outline of the various aspects of the crisis. Its purpose is to highlight the need for serious research on this issue, and does not claim to present a holistic critique or complete picture of the crisis. It rather attempts to highlight some of the most important aspects of the ideological crisis of the left movement in India.

Reading that Isn’t Reading

writers enough energy and coherence to make possible a sustained confrontation with the new sensibility.” I never met Howe, though I corresponded with him briefly. Although I criticized his vaporous socialist agenda, I felt an affinity with him because I too disliked the “new sensibility” and also because our nonpolitical enthusiasms were the same: the poetry of Robert Frost, the ballets of George Balanchine, the paintings of Edouard Vuillard—and the baseball playing of Willie Mays! Like Howe the New York intellectuals were mainly essayists. “If to the minor genre of the essay the New York writers made a major contribution,” Howe says, “to the major genres of fiction and poetry they made only a minor contribution.” Edmund Burke once asked: “Who now reads Bolingbroke?” Today one might ask: Who now reads the essays of Irving Howe, Lionel Trilling, Irving Kristol, Sidney Hook, Alfred Kazin, Mary McCarthy, Elizabeth Hardwick, and Daniel Bell—to name some of the most prominent New York intellectuals? Howe surmised the work of the New York intellectuals would not last because their writing “was always in response to something. That was the sense of the essay that we all did. And that’s why none of us is likely to survive.” He may have been right. Yet the essays of the New York intellectuals will always be of interest to historians, since these writers wrestled with political and cultural questions that preoccupied this nation in the sixties, seventies, and eighties.

The National Question in Cyprus and the Cypriot Communist Left in the Era of British Colonialism (1922–59)

This paper considers AKEL's (Progressive Party of the Working People) stance on Cyprus's national issue in the era of British colonialism (1922–59). For analytical purposes, the time span is divided into two periods. The first period covers the years 1922–41, the years during which the CPC (Communist Party of Cyprus) was functioning. The second period extends from AKEL's foundation in 1941 to the declaration of Cyprus's independence in 1959. The analytical framework focuses on five parameters that will illuminate the Cypriot communist left's strategies, tactics and responses to the various developments and phases of the national issue of Cyprus in the period under study: the age of the party; the colonial status of Cyprus; external influences; intra-party conflicts; political opposition. It is argued that the national issue precluded presentation of a socialist agenda to the people of Cyprus, but it also helped AKEL reach out for alliances with other political forces and personalities, and gain and retain a prominent role in Cypriot politics.

Muslims Renegotiating Marginality in Contemporary Ethiopia

AbstractEthiopian Muslims have only had access to public space and opportunity for religious self‐definition and collective influence since 1991. During little more than two decades, how have they advanced subjective agency within the political constraints of the current government, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front or EPRDF? This article addresses that question by backgrounding the history of Islamic expansion into Ethiopia, tracing Muslim engagement with Christian political elites over several hundred years, till the latter part of the 21st century. After the deposition of Haile Selasse in 1974, the DERG assumed power and in the name of a socialist agenda, suppressed all religions from 1975–1991. DERG socialism has been replaced by EPRDF pluralism, yet the structural constraints of the latter have weakened the efforts of Ethiopian Muslims to find their rightful place in the public square. Abetted and assisted by overseas immigrant communities, in both Western Europe and North America, Ethiopian Muslims continue to contest securitization and marginalization by the state, even as they struggle with regional, national and transnational issues that impact all Muslim identity politics in the second decade of the 21st century.

Cosmic American Studies

There is not only an existential poignancy but also an intellectual piquancy to the 1950 suicide note of F. O. Matthiessen, one of the founders of American studies: “I am depressed over world conditions. I am a Christian and a Socialist. I am against any order which interferes with that objective” (“F. O. Matthiessen”). Matthiessen attributed his fateful decision to a situation—the Cold War—in which it increasingly seemed difficult to assert credibly and pursue effectively a socialist agenda without being presumed or pressured to hold commitments to materialism, atheism, and secularism. The dominant narrative of American studies is that the Cold War gave the field its life—the ideological impetus and institutional infrastructure to produce and peddle a sophisticated version of American exceptionalism (Radway 47-49; Wise 308-12). But Matthiessen's tragic case suggests instead that the Cold War may have killed American studies, at least a possible version of it. Matthiessen's fatal dilemma, I want respectfully to suggest, might instruct us how to reconstruct the history and future of a field whose “bread-and-butter concerns” have always included religion (Stein and Murison 1; cf. Modern). Matthiessen's political credentials as a socialist were bona fide, and his intellectual inclinations were toward deep historicist analysis, but he couldn't commit to Marxism, despite his frank acknowledgment of its indispensable contribution not only to intellectual culture but also to his own thinking. Clearly, personal religious reasons played a role—“I am a Christian, not through upbringing but by conviction, and I find any materialism inadequate” (Matthiessen, “Education” 180). But I want to underscore Matthiessen's intellectual objections, which arose from the evidence of his historical inquiry into American literature and culture. That is to say, I want to distinguish between how his theological convictions may have prejudiced him against Marxism's secularist teleology and how his scholarly investigation of American literature and culture raised legitimate questions about Marxism's implicit secularization narrative. In reviews of the Marxist literary histories of his Americanist colleagues V. F. Calverton and Granville Hicks, Matthiessen complained of their inability to comprehend what he called “the main development of religious idealism from Edwards through the transcendental movement” and “the strain of affirmation of the ideal that runs from the seventeenth century to the twentieth” (Responsibilities187, 195). The secularist premises of Marxist analysis—at least in the crude form espoused by Calverton and Hicks—seemed to Matthiessen blunt instruments with which to accomplish deep understanding of the pronounced “religious idealism” of American literature and culture.

Emergence of a university of health sciences: Health professions education in Tanzania

From independence in 1961 Tanzania approached development with an ambitious, socialist agenda, including plans for educating its health workforce to reach rural villagers whose needs German and British rulers had relegated behind those of Europeans, Indians, and Arabs. The new nation's health system was to provide services by employing non-elitist university graduates and auxiliary health workers - educated using resources of poor Tanzanians. This article documents how the Muhimbili University of Allied Health Sciences (MUHAS) evolved from independence, gaining its charter in 2007. Faculty face overwhelming challenges to prepare graduates to lead a health system where the workforce numbers, in every category of auxiliary and professional, have not kept pace with a population that has quadrupled since 1961. The article reviews development of what are now the MUHAS Schools of Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, and Public Health and Social Sciences - in their social and economic context. It closes with reflections about important changes for MUHAS since independence. MUHAS and other health professional schools need to collaborate, sharing meager national resources, to dramatically scale up enrollment. Graduates lead the health system and the many schools that educate health workers from village health post managers through referral hospital specialists and researchers. The text is accompanied by a detailed timeline.

Fighting against the Moral Agenda of Zapatero's Socialist Government (2004–2011): The Spanish Catholic Church as a Political Contender

AbstractEven though not all European churches can be ascribed a political profile, moral issues have unleashed the protest of some of them alongside Christian-inspired groups and advocacy coalitions. Mobilization against these issues is not surprising in democracy but the different role that churches might play is. Unlike other European churches, the Spanish Catholic Church has acted as a political contender under Zapatero's rule (2004–2011). The new Socialist agenda, with its emphasis on morally-liberal reforms, has triggered a protest in which the church has invested significant resources and helped mobilize the more Conservative quarters of the Catholic society. This adversarial role is distinctive but not unique: the Italian and Polish churches have also opted for confrontational strategies in the face of similar challenges. However, the Spanish case is most relevant because, unlike other predominantly Catholic societies (Italy, Portugal, Ireland, and Poland), it has experienced a most profound and fastest secularization process. Confrontation can then be explained by the supply (a well-endowed Church that enjoys a privileged relationship with a non-confessional state) and not by the demand.

A Multitude of Hopes: Humanism and Subjectivity in E.P. Thompson and Antonio Negri

E.P. Thompson's work on working-class formation is widely recognized as one of the crucial contributions to Marxist historiography in the twentieth century. His emphasis on notions of agency and subjectivity is intimately linked to a radical recasting of the socialist agenda against the objectivism of an earlier, ‘orthodox’, Marxism and of a later, and more theoretically sophisticated, structuralism. Thompson's conception of working-class agency as the primary element in historical materialism parallels Antonio Negri's theorization of proletarian subjectivity as an expansive process of collective self-constitution. In particular, Negri's analysis of ‘power’ as an autonomous dynamic of social creation offers an essential development of Thompson's ideas and a fresh theoretical template for the political re-actualization of radical humanism.

TRADITION AND CHANGE IN MARRIAGE PAYMENTS IN VIETNAM, 1963–2000

This study analyses data from the Vietnam Study of Family Change to document trends and determinants of marriage payments in Vietnam from 1963 to 2000. We investigate the extent to which structural and policy transformations influenced the practice of payments, and estimate how societal changes indirectly impacted payments via their effects on population characteristics. Results indicate that marriage payments surged following market reform, but also reveal nuanced trends during earlier years. While the socialist attempts to eradicate brideprice appear to have been successful in the North before economic renovation, they were unsuccessful in the South. Structural and policy change explained most of the observed variations in payments. The changing characteristics of the married individuals mattered relatively less. We interpret the re-emergence of marriage payments as attesting to the resilience of traditional values and the unravelling of the socialist agenda, but also as a reflection of Vietnam's economic prosperity in the 1990s.

Teaching & Learning Guide for: Men, Women and an Integrated History of the Russian Revolutionary Movement

Teaching & Learning Guide for: Men, Women and an Integrated History of the Russian Revolutionary Movement

Rethinking a progressive moment: the Liberal and Labour parties in the 1945 general election

Revisionist writing on the 1945 general election has suggested that the Labour victory largely reflected voters' hostility to the Conservative party, and a general enthusiasm for social reforms such as the Beveridge scheme, rather than widespread support for Labour's socialist agenda. This article argues that the Liberal party's poor performance in the 1945 election, and the low incidence of tactical voting against Conservative candidates, suggest that 1945 was more than just a reaction against Conservative rule. Instead, many voters appear to have been positively attracted to the identity which Labour projected, as the only party which grounded its promises of social reform in a vision of a planned economy.

Why Has Son-Preference Disappeared in North Korea?

IntroductionThis paper investigates gender disparities among children raised in North Korea, perhaps the last remaining bastion of communism. Ever since the separation of the Korean Peninsula into two Koreas in 1948, the socialist agenda of North Korea has aimed at equal status for women, whereas South Korea is one of the most strongly patriarchal societies in the world.1 Considering North Korea's official proclamation of being an egalitarian society, the question remains as to whether or not the communist system in the North has managed to reduce cultural gender gaps.Previous studies on North Korean gender issues are scarce or rely on qualitative evidence, given the overall lack of information on North Korea. These studies usually limit themselves to examining the role of women in North Korean communist society. Conclusions are commonly drawn on material released by North Korea's Foreign Languages Publishing House, such as the collected works or speeches of North Korean leader Kim Il-Sung2 and the official constitution.3 The main conclusion of these articles is that women have become liberated in North Korean society. This is due to the communist agenda that has largely integrated women into the labor force and abolished the Confucian patrilineal family registration system. However, it is also noteworthy that the role of women in North Korean society is mostly limited to a producer or reproducer role.4Recent studies on North Korean gender bias are based mainly on data from defectors. During and after the North Korean famine of the 1990s, the number of North Korean economic refugees increased drastically, allowing information to be obtained via the interviewing of North Koreans living abroad. For instance, 46 percent of the respondents in a 1999 survey conducted among 332 refugees said that their husbands were the main decision-makers when it came to purchases, whereas only 37 percent answered that the wife was.5 This indicates a clear, though not severe, patriarchal bias within North Korean households. In contrary, another refugee study suggests that the mid-1990s famine could have led to a change in gender roles, division of labor, and gender-preference within North Korean families.6 In the 1990s, the collapse of the heavy-industry-oriented North Korean economy combined with the food crisis might have strengthened the positions of females in North Korean society. Housewives found efficient ways to contribute to the family income by engaging in the emerging informal and light-industry-oriented economy, while mothers began to prefer daughters since they were perceived as requiring less food to survive during crisis periods.In 1999, demographic researcher Daniel Goodkind raised an interesting question that shed light on the extent of gender discrimination in North Korea: Do parents in North Korea prefer sons? Child malnutrition data based on a 1998 UN survey report were analyzed along with sex ratios at birth taken from the North Korean population census data of 1993.7 The study did not find evidence of female disadvantage based on a lack of increased pre- and post-natal female mortality or a lack of aggravated malnutrition, both of which factors may be due to North Korea's socialist ideology.This paper investigates gender disparities in North Korea in 2002. Methodologically, this study was based on quantitative and reliable data, and thus it goes beyond ad hoc, qualitative, and non-random data gathered from refugee interviews. Moreover, as distinct from Goodkind's study, this paper focuses on a more recent period while directly investigating intra-household allocation biases within North Korean families, as opposed to relying on demographic and anthropometric indicators alone.Historical Gender Inequality and Socialist AchievementsConfucianism was adopted by Korea during the Chosun Dynasty (1392-1910), and largely affected the status of women and girls in society. It has been argued that the status of females was higher before the Chosun Dynasty, as women could remarry, become head of the family, and receive equal inheritance. …

Planning Ideology and Geographic Thought in the Early Twentieth Century: Charles Whitnall’s Progressive Era Park Designs for Socialist Milwaukee

As Milwaukee’s chief park planner in the early to mid-twentieth century, Charles Whitnall responded to the various underlying ideologies of the period within which he worked. His preference for parks was a political and physical response to and remedy for the industrialized and heavily congested city he called home. By examining the Progressive Era discourse associated with planning, this article situates Whitnall’s work within the political, aesthetic, and environmental contexts of geographic thought that influenced his plans for Milwaukee. In promoting a physical awareness associated with the natural features of the region and responding to the sociopolitical framework of contemporaries such as Ebenezer Howard, Whitnall incorporated a sense of compassion within his planning. He responded to the preexisting beer gardens of Pabst and Schlitz, as well as Olmsted-designed park spaces, by advocating for decentralization as part of a broader socialist agenda that had swept through Milwaukee during the early 1900s.

Race for the Magic Mountain: Mountaineering and the National Socialist Agenda in Europe

Race for the Magic Mountain: Mountaineering and the National Socialist Agenda in Europe

Using Natural Sciences for Cultural Expansion: The National Socialist Agenda for the Balkans

<p>This article highlights the political merit natural sciences were awarded under the totalitarian regime of Nazi Germany and their propagandistic role in Hitler's foreign policy agenda for the Balkans, a region which was expected to replace Germany's colonies lost in World War I. It accounts further for the policies and strategies National Socialists used to exert cultural influence on the countries of South-East Europe, namely through a number of institutions with which natural sciences were in one way or another involved in order to promote German culture abroad. The promotion of the German language and, to a certain degree, the Nazi ideology was a precondition for familiarising the Balkan countries with German scientific achievements, which would pave the way for an economic and political infiltration in that region. Therefore, natural sciences, as part of the German intellect, acquired political and economic connotations hidden behind the euphemistic term of cultural policy, designed for this region of geopolitical importance. The article is based almost exclusively on unpublished German records.</p><p> </p><p> </p>

Smash: An Adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s Novel An Unsocial Socialist (review)

Reviewed by: Smash: An Adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s Novel An Unsocial Socialist Gavin Hawk Smash: An Adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s Novel An Unsocial Socialist. By Jeffrey Hatcher. Directed by Lillian Groag. Asolo Repertory Theatre, Mertz Theatre, Sarasota, FL. 19 March 2008. In the late 1880s, a young George Bernard Shaw industriously produced one unsuccessful novel after another, the last of which, An Unsocial Socialist, was a self-deprecating satire on the values of his beloved Fabian Society. Perhaps part of the reason these initial literary forays were failures was due to Shaw’s own admittedly weak plot construction. It took the advice of critic William Archer and his observations of theatre for Shaw to understand the importance of strong dramatic structure, which would eventually help transform him into a Nobel Prize–winning author. But even though Shaw would later publicly dismiss his early literary efforts, the potential for satisfying storytelling was still intrinsic in his last novel’s crackling dialog and gripping themes. Unearthing the format of a classic well-made play, Jeffrey Hatcher’s Smash, and the Asolo Rep production of it, breathes new life into this overlooked Shaw work. As the curtain rose at the Mertz Theatre, the endearing strains of Mendelssohn’s “Wedding March” quickly turned discordant, the instruments going flat and sharp, followed by the sound of shattering glass. This served as a fitting metaphor for the inciting incident of the play: the end of a marriage only twenty minutes after the nuptials. Hatcher uses this event as a launching point for the well-made play’s requisite exposition, during which Sidney Trefusis explains to his new bride Henrietta that he must leave her in order to promote his socialist agenda and to bring down the English government for the good of proletariats everywhere. The fact that he himself is a millionaire is only one of the many comic paradoxes in the piece. The setting quickly turns to the Alton College for Girls, a glorified charm school for well-to-do young women. Here Sidney has morphed into an industrious Cockney groundskeeper named Mengels (a mash-up of Marx and Engels). The creation of this alias provides another one of the key ingredients of the well-made play: the secret on which the plot hinges. Sidney has taken on this identity in order to convert the young scholars to socialism, knowing full well they are being groomed to marry Britain’s rich and powerful. When one of the students, Agatha Wylie, participates in a youthful act of defiance against her overbearing headmistress, Sidney sees an opportunity to begin his revolution. He enlists Agatha and her young cohorts in a scheme to wrest control of the school, partly by supplanting the capitalist pedagogy with [End Page 491] Click for larger view View full resolution Kris Danford (Henrietta), Julie Lachance (Agatha), Jessie Blue Gormezano (Jane), and Jennifer Logue (Gertrude) in Smash: An Adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s Novel An Unsocial Socialist. Photo: Julia Guzman. [End Page 492] his socialist teachings, and partly by scheming to pay the villagers five pounds each to revolt and smash down the walls of the college. Act 2 escalates the dramatic tension and rising action when Henrietta arrives at the college to visit her cousin Agatha and quickly sees through Sidney’s disguise. To further complicate matters, Agatha falls madly in love with Sidney, creating an amusing love triangle. Meanwhile Henrietta plays the part of the pining wife to her advantage, seducing Sidney into a temporary repose then handcuffing him to a teacart. It is here that Hatcher employs the device of the scene a fair, wherein a character discloses an important revelation, in this case Henrietta’s diabolical plan for revenge on Sidney. This leads to a hilarious climatic turning point where she makes a mockery of his revolution by leading the townspeople in a drunken attack on the college, getting them to sing “99 Bottles of Beer” instead of the socialist anthem, “The International.” Act 3 brings a traditional denouement, complete with the pairing off of secondary characters into couples and Sidney’s overdue comeuppance. But rather than tying up the play in a neat package...

Die schweizerische Linke und Israel: Israelbegeisterung, Antizionismus und Antisemitismus zwischen 1967 und 1991 (review)

Die schweizerische Linke und Israel: Israelbegeisterung, Antizionismus und Antisemitismus zwischen 1967 und 1991, by Christina Spati. Essen: Klartext Verlag, 2006.360 pp. euro29.90. Various reports prove that antisemitism did not disappear after World War II but continues to influence political culture in Europe even in 21st century. It can be found in West European countries on right and left of political spectrum, in liberal circles and-as a new phenomenon-among growing Moslem population. While hatred of by right is obviously linked with Holocaust denial, xenophobia, and racism, left is very often accused of merging anti-Zionism with antisemitism. The association of anti-Zionism with antisemitism is not new but intensified after foundation of State of Israel and especially after Six-Day War of 1967. When does criticism of Israel and anti-Zionism become antisemitic? How can it be explained that many left-wing circles in Europe and North America substituted their enthusiasm for Jewish state and its socialist agenda for a harsh criticism of Israel after 1967? Christina Spati examines Swiss Left for answers to these and other questions. She first introduces definitions of antisemitism and and-Zionism and underlines antisemitism's transformations in Europe after 1945. While an open hatred of remained politically incorrect after Auschwitz, new issues appeared: denial or trivialization of Holocaust and Israel. In addition, philosemitic attitudes emerged. The author sets up three interesting propositions for Swiss approaches to antisemitism after 1945: First, antisemitism was limited to Nazi Germany and did not exist in Switzerland. Second, antisemitism was regarded as a marginal phenomenon existing on extreme right; antisemitic attitudes of broader population groups and their articulation in daily life were ignored. Third, antisemitism was associated with ideology and politics of Third Reich and disappeared together with Nazi regime. Once merged, these views prohibited a deeper debate on antisemitic incidents in Switzerland after World War II (p. 32f ). The author does not ignore fact that anti-Zionism very often includes antisemitic tendencies; however, she does emphasize that it cannot be characterized as anrisemitism. According to Span, criticism of Israelis or Zionists becomes antisemitic when persons criticized are explicitly characterized as and Israeli politics is described as politics of the Jews (p. 49). Span focuses her research on Swiss including Social Democrats and trade unionists, communists, New Left, new social movements, autonomous and antifascist groups of 1980s, and independent Leftist journals and newspapers. She bases her study on many published and unpublished primary sources, including rich archival material. Interviews with journalists or political actors were not conducted. The author analyzes publications across Left in Switzerland during four periods: from Six-Day War to Yom Kippur War, from 1974 to 1982, from Lebanon War to 1987, and from outbreak of first Inrifada to Iraq War of 1991. There was no unified Left position regarding Israel (p. 325), she concludes, but rather a range of attitudes from principled opposition to Jewish state and its delegitimization, to unconditional support of Israel. The periodization follows Middle East conflict and attaches only minor significance to international developments and domestic issues. The reader unfamiliar with history of Switzerland would appreciate some introductory information on concrete numbers, leading figures, and political role of Left in society. …

‘Logical empiricism’ and the philosophy of science

'Philosophy of science' suggests to many a highly technical project that offers logical analyses of scientific and metascientific terms a perspective that may not greatly appeal to historians, sociologists, or scientists. This image of philosophy of science owes much to a common understanding of logical empiricism (nee positivism), a project that seemed to attempt to force all of science, and all of our understanding of science, into the Procrustean bed of formal logic. George Reisch laments this vision of the philosophy of science, and seeks to complicate it in a novel way, by arguing that logical empiricism might have bequeathed to us a very different philosophy of science. In so doing, he conducts us through a history of logical empiricism in its European phase during the 1920s and 1930s. He recovers the socialist agenda then at the heart of logical empiricism, and notes its alliances with progressivist wings in early twentieth-century American philosophy. He then offers a history of the technical and apolitical project that philosophy of science has become. As the title telegraphs, Reisch argues that the Cold War led the logical empiricists many of them immigrants from Germany or Austria, often Jewish, and often with socialist leanings away from their youthful political engagement, towards philosophical isolationism. That there is an important political history to the philosophy of science in the twentieth century is largely unknown to many in the profession. Most philosophers of science tacitly endorse a 'liberal neutralist' account of science: they believe that scientific knowledge

State Socialism in Australian Political Thought: A Reconsideration

In understanding the origins of conventional tenets in political thought, we should attend to cross‐spectrum analysis of usage. Taking state socialism as an instance, this paper argues that the practice of treating it historically either as an element within a radical tradition (by Labour historians) or as a discredited part of a socialist agenda (by liberals) ignores the ways in which it was it was deployed across the political spectrum. Outsiders (such as the Webbs and Métin) skewed the record, describing the pragmatic accommodations they saw as “socialism without doctrines”, unconscious of the debates amongst Australian political elites. We need to explore anew where ideas came from, how they were taken up and adapted in the Australian context (by all sides) and the circumstances that determined their duration within everyday discourse.

Role of Ideas in the Survival of the Chinese Communist Party

Three major questions are raised in this paper. First, why did the Dengist leadership pursue the ‘specific’ reform policies that ultimately proved to be successful? Second, how could the Chinese Communist party (CCP) legitimise its role in society after compromising on most of the socialist agenda? And third, why has the economic liberalisation not led to the democratic form of government in China even after more than two decades of reforms? By using Berman’s ideational approach (Berman 1998), it is found that a specific variant of socialism, which also allowed some of the capitalist tendencies, became institutionalised in the early history of the CCP. The ‘programmatic beliefs’ and ‘policy legacies’, which characterise this variant of socialism in China, constrained and guided the Dengist leadership to pursue the reforms that were compatible with Chinese conditions. As these reforms were within the framework of the ‘programmatic beliefs’ of the CCP, the party did not face legitimacy crisis in the eyes of the Chinese people, and thus retained its power after reforms.