{"title":"How party-history-revision became a tactic for leadership struggles within the Chinese Communist Party in China","authors":"J.Z. Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.ajss.2023.09.002","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>In China, when top leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) meet intractable intraparty struggles, they may resort to revision of party history for the settlement. This has become an idiosyncratic tactic in China's elite politics that draws scholars’ interests. How does party history revision solve leadership struggles? I argue that this repetitive phenomenon can be explained to a certain degree by path dependence. This research investigates the historical process of how party history was enmeshed in intraparty struggles, institutionalized, and exerted path-dependent impact. By reviewing the process, I find that a political tactic at an early critical juncture may engender institutionalization, generate path-dependent effect, and push historical development along a particular path. Path dependence may lead the same phenomenon to repetitively occur across time.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":45675,"journal":{"name":"Asian Journal of Social Science","volume":"52 1","pages":"Pages 27-34"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1568484923000400/pdfft?md5=dc5c17248e51d83950c860523bf3b001&pid=1-s2.0-S1568484923000400-main.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Asian Journal of Social Science","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1568484923000400","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"AREA STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
In China, when top leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) meet intractable intraparty struggles, they may resort to revision of party history for the settlement. This has become an idiosyncratic tactic in China's elite politics that draws scholars’ interests. How does party history revision solve leadership struggles? I argue that this repetitive phenomenon can be explained to a certain degree by path dependence. This research investigates the historical process of how party history was enmeshed in intraparty struggles, institutionalized, and exerted path-dependent impact. By reviewing the process, I find that a political tactic at an early critical juncture may engender institutionalization, generate path-dependent effect, and push historical development along a particular path. Path dependence may lead the same phenomenon to repetitively occur across time.
期刊介绍:
The Asian Journal of Social Science is a principal outlet for scholarly articles on Asian societies published by the Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore. AJSS provides a unique forum for theoretical debates and empirical analyses that move away from narrow disciplinary focus. It is committed to comparative research and articles that speak to cases beyond the traditional concerns of area and single-country studies. AJSS strongly encourages transdisciplinary analysis of contemporary and historical social change in Asia by offering a meeting space for international scholars across the social sciences, including anthropology, cultural studies, economics, geography, history, political science, psychology, and sociology. AJSS also welcomes humanities-oriented articles that speak to pertinent social issues. AJSS publishes internationally peer-reviewed research articles, special thematic issues and shorter symposiums. AJSS also publishes book reviews and review essays, research notes on Asian societies, and short essays of special interest to students of the region.