From Reform to Revolution: The Demise of Communism in China and the Soviet Union

by Minxin Pei

Overview

The demise of communism in the former Soviet Union and the massive political and economic changes in China are the stunning transformations of our century. Two central questions are emerging: Why did different communist systems experience different patterns of transition? Why did partial reforms in the Soviet Union and China turn into revolutions?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674325647
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	01/08/1998
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Minxin Pei is the author of several books on Chinese domestic politics, including China’s Crony Capitalism: The Dynamics of Regime Decay and China’s Trapped Transition: The Limits of Developmental Autocracy. He is the Tom and Margot Pritzker ’72 Professor of Government and George R. Roberts Fellow at Claremont McKenna College.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Regime Transition in Communist States

Explaining the Tocqueville Paradox

China's Capitalist Revolution

The Private Sector under Perestroika

The Self-Liberalization of China's Mass Media

The Liberal Takeover of the Soviet Mass Media under Glasnost

Conclusion

Abbreviations

Notes

Acknowledgments

Index

Editorial Reviews

This is an immensely exciting, sustained analytical effort ...this book is quite likely to become a classic in its field.

Pacific Review

An outstanding scholarly work with a powerful argument, reams of relevant data, and a crisp, succinct presentation. It is among the very best of its genre.

China Journal - Barrett McCormick

From Reform to Revolution makes an important contribution...and is likely to endure as a landmark study in the field.

Journal of Asian Studies

Pei’s approach to sociopolitical change is rational-analytical. Rational social actors follow their interests, societies are seen as being governed by explicable laws within a systematic general comparative theory; any significant event has its (though ex post) explanation. Frequent references to past and present masters of social and political theory reveal the scholarly tradition and pedagogical skill of the author. Moreover, the reader cannot but admire the clarity of the narrative; concepts are always clearly defined, questions explicitly formulated, the style is balanced and accurate. The reader is invited to share a feel of rich factual complexity as well as a chess-like lawful quality in the flow of events.

Reviewing Sociology - Ludek Rychetnik

Breathtaking...Pei is original in exploring and explaining the conventional wisdom that China’s Communist regime survived reform and the Soviet Union’s did not because one undertook economic reform first and the other political reform first. What is breathtaking is...the author's range and detail, comprehending not only his native China, but the vast literature on the former USSR and its more than a dozen ‘republics.’

James A. Robinsonn Journal of Chinese Studies

The first comprehensive effort to compare the recent political experiences of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the People’s Republic of China by tracing their overlapping and diverging paths of regime change...Very tightly argued and erudite.

Philippe C. Schmitter

Breathtaking...Pei is original in exploring and explaining the conventional wisdom that China’s Communist regime survived reform and the Soviet Union’s did not because one undertook economic reform first and the other political reform first. What is breathtaking is...the author's range and detail, comprehending not only his native China, but the vast literature on the former USSR and its more than a dozen ‘republics.’

American Journal of Chinese Studies - James A. Robinson

The first comprehensive effort to compare the recent political experiences of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the People's Republic of China by tracing their overlapping and diverging paths of regime change...Very tightly argued and erudite.

Russian Review - Philippe C. Schmitter

Pei's approach to sociopolitical change is rational-analytical. Rational social actors follow their interests, societies are seen as being governed by explicable laws within a systematic general comparative theory; any significant event has its (though ex post) explanation. Frequent references to past and present masters of social and political theory reveal the scholarly tradition and pedagogical skill of the author. Moreover, the reader cannot but admire the clarity of the narrative; concepts are always clearly defined, questions explicitly formulated, the style is balanced and accurate. The reader is invited to share a feel of rich factual complexity as well as a chess-like lawful quality in the flow of events.
— Ludek Rychetnik

Reviewing Sociology

Breathtaking...Pei is original in exploring and explaining the conventional wisdom that China's Communist regime survived reform and the Soviet Union's did not because one undertook economic reform first and the other political reform first. What is breathtaking is...the author's range and detail, comprehending not only his native China, but the vast literature on the former USSR and its more than a dozen 'republics.'
— James A. Robinson

American Journal of Chinese Studies

An outstanding scholarly work with a powerful argument, reams of relevant data, and a crisp, succinct presentation. It is among the very best of its genre.
— Barrett McCormick

China Journal

The first comprehensive effort to compare the recent political experiences of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the People's Republic of China by tracing their overlapping and diverging paths of regime change...Very tightly argued and erudite.
— Philippe C. Schmitter

Russian Review

An analytical and empirical study which shows that patterns of regime transition in communist states depend on the countries' preexisting social structures and political and economic institutions. Pei (politics, Princeton U.) identifies the rapid mobilization of previously excluded social groups during the reform phase as the most powerful explanation for the revolutionary outcome of initially limited political and economic reforms in the Soviet Union and China. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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