Introduction

Less than four years after Mao Zedong’s death, Deng Xiaoping declared that China needed to move away from an “over-concentration of power” by an individual leader to establish a more institutionalized system of governance. Xi Jinping’s ascension to power in 2013 promised a new era of reform of the Communist Party of China (CCP), specifically intended to preserve the party’s power.  Rather than addressing governance issues, however, Xi’s actions, such as the anti-corruption campaign, have served to concentrate power in his hands, showing the weakness of political institutionalization in China after decades of collective leadership.  While decision-making processes continue to be a black box, Xi, by reclaiming the CCP’s authority over policy-making, and by chairing CCP small leading groups, appears to have moved China back to Mao-style personalistic rule.   The puzzles that remain are how personalistic  rule has returned to a country characterized by a growing middle class and a modern open market economy; and what this reversion to personalistic leadership tells us about the ambiguities of institutionalization in communist ruling parties.

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About the Speaker

Susan Shirk is the Chair of the 21^st Century China Program, and Research Professor at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at the University of California, San Diego.