Well, I think a comparison of the situations that faced the bureaucracy in the Soviet Union following the death of Stalin, versus the situation that faced the Chinese bureaucracy following the death of Mao might be in order here. In both countries, the bureaucracies were seeking stability. The Soviet bureaucracy had suffered greatly under Stalin and so greeted Khrushchev's ascension into power with enthusiasm, especially when he talked about things like establishing norms of "socialist legality." Later on they soured on him when they perceived him to be shaking up the applecart a bit too much for their tastes. Hence, their later enthusiasm for Breshnev who wasn't interested in changing things very much in the Soviet Union.
In China, the economic situation following the death of Mao seems to have been much more dire. And the disruptions experienced by the bureaucracy during the Mao years, especially during the Cultural Revolution were much more severe. They never had the chance to become as well-entrenched in the country's state-owned enterprises they way the Soviet bureaucrats were able to do, so they had less of a vested interest in attempting to maintain the kind of centrally planned economy that the Soviet Union was able to build up over a period of decades. Hence, the Chinese bureaucrats were much more welcoming of Deng's reforms, especially when Deng began to offer them opportunity to become wealthy.
Jim F.
---------- Original Message ---------- From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] "I like rightists" Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 21:16:15 -0400
On May 5, 2009, at 9:05 PM, Jim Farmelant wrote:
> Therefore,
> later on when Deng inititated his economic reforms,
> the bureaucracy was in much less of a position to resist
> the turn to the market than it might have been otherwise.
But they did a pretty good job making it happen, no?
Doug ___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
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