ABSTRACT
This volume has examined two models of administration, which were employed in China in the 1940s and the early 1950s, and modified thereafter. The Yan’an model, articulated in 1942 – 3, had at its core a process of rectification whereby leaders learned how to apply Marxism-Leninism and general Party policy to a concrete environment and were made to answer for their conduct in the field. In that process, a new leadership type was prescribed—the ‘cadre’—committed to change within a network of human solidarity and with an orientation which was both ‘red’ and ‘expert’. The cadre operated in a situation where a distinction was drawn between policy and operations. He was committed also to the principle of the Mass Line which reconciled central policy with mass sentiments. Administration was organised according to a principle of dual rule and political campaigns were effected by horizontal mobilisation under the leadership of local Party branches. To prevent a growing division of labour between leaders and led, a programme of xiaxiang (later called simply xiafang) was introduced, whereby cadres engaged for periods of time in manual labour and helped peasants construct an informal or semi-formal minban education system. Throughout this whole process, units (both civilian and military) were encouraged to become self-sufficient and competent in both production and other duties. Rural co-operativisation, therefore, was by no means merely an agricultural programme and attempts were made to integrate agriculture, industry, administration, education and defence, insofar as wartime conditions allowed.
