Charlotte P. Lee, Training the Party: Party Adaptation and Elite Training in Reform-Era China

摘要

Charlotte Lee begins with the puzzle of how the party school system continues to thrive more than three decades into the reform period, despite being a relic of Mao's importation of Leninist party organization, as an entry point into answering the larger question of how the CCP is capable of the adaptive learning that many claim are the secret to the durability of Party-rule in China. David Shambaugh (2008) claims that the party school system is vital to the construction of a "learning Party" that can continue to adapt to the social and economic complexity in China without collapsing as many other Communist parties did around the world. Frank Pieke also finds that the party schools are being used to create an "administrative civilization" that can effectively govern modern China (2009:121). Lee's excellent research into the changes in the party school system confirms that "local experimentation and innovation across party schools demonstrate that the party is serious about fostering the conditions for adaptive change" (p201).