Approaches to the Study of Chinese Politics

Abstract

The development of China studies reflects not only the cumulative progress of “normal” science and the adventitious availability of particular source materials, but the changing core concerns or leitmotifs of a political system that has undergone several paradigm shifts. During the reform era, there has been a shift from the Maoist emphasis on charismatic leadership and revolutionary momentum to a concern with economic growth and system building. Thus it becomes possible for us to group (domestic) China studies into three subfields: political economy, political sociology, and political structure. Common to all three of them is a shift from top-down, “strong state” assumptions to the construction of complex systems at the middle and lower levels.