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Customer Ratings: 4.0 (from 1 reviews) |
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Product Description
In this book David Bachman examines the origins of the Great Leap Forward (GLF), a program of economic reform that must be considered one of the great tragedies of Communist China, estimated to have caused the death of between 14 and 28 million Chinese. While standard accounts interpret the GLF as chiefly the brainchild of Mao Zedong and as a radical rejection of a set of more moderate reform proposals put forward in the period 1956 to 1957, Bachman proposes a provocative reinterpretation of the origins of the GLF that stresses the role of the bureaucracy. Using a neo-institutionalist approach to analyze economic policy-making leading up to the GLF, he argues that the GLF must be seen as the product of an institutional process of policy-making. |
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| Product Details |
| Author: |
David Bachman |
| Binding: |
Hardcover |
| Dewey Decimal Number: |
338.95009045 |
| EAN: |
9780521402750 |
| ISBN: |
0521402751 |
| Label: |
Cambridge University Press |
| Languages: |
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| List Price: |
| Amount: |
9499 |
| Currency Code: |
USD |
| Formatted Price: |
$94.99 |
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| Manufacturer: |
Cambridge University Press |
| Number Of Items: |
1 |
| Number Of Pages: |
284 |
| Package Dimensions: |
| Height: |
102 |
| Length: |
906 |
| Weight: |
123 |
| Width: |
630 |
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| Product Group: |
Book |
| Publication Date: |
1991-04-26 |
| Publisher: |
Cambridge University Press |
| Studio: |
Cambridge University Press |
| Title: |
Bureaucracy, Economy, and Leadership in China: The Institutional Origins of the Great Leap Forward |
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| Customer Reviews |
Customer Rating: 4
Review Date: 2007-04-20
2 out of 2 found this review helpful.
Summary: A Unique Interpretation of China's Great Leap Forward
The standard interpretations of the Great Leap Forward in China tend to focus on the political aspects and/or the utopian dimensions. And, to be sure, these are valid ways of looking at the GLF. However, in this book Bachman presents an alternative mode of examining the GLF through the use of a neoinstitutionalist approach. Bachman's main argument is that the various economic bureaucracies that existed in China were more or less in control of economic policy and they lobbied Mao and the central leadership for acceptance of their particular policy initiatives. Thus, the GLF can be understood as the manifestation of the policies presented by a coalition of certain economic bureaucracies as opposed to the policies of others. Furthermore, this book suggests that the range of policy options available to Mao were limited to those presented by the bureaucracies; Mao generally was unable to create his own unique policies especially in the economic sector.
This was a relatively interesting read. One thing it really did well was that it illuminated the relationship between key bureaucrats such as Bo Libo and Chen Yuan, and also how the bureaucrats related to central politicians such as Mao or Deng Xiaoping. Another thing that I found very interesting and that Bachman elucidated very well was the shift in Mao's thinking between the time period of 1956 to early 1957 and that of late 1957 through 1958. Mao actually favored more balanced reform including market incentives up until the fall on 1957, when the anti-Rightist campaign made such reforms politically untenable.
This is a good book that would make a great addition to a college-level course on modern China. If I were to pick one chapter to include in a course syllabus it would be chapter 7, which focuses more on Mao than the other chapters do. This would also make a great secondary source for works dealing with the origins of the GLF or the evolution of Mao's thought concerning the economy. This work contains great information on a lot of China's top bureaucrats and politicians during the late 1950s. |
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