China’s Possible New Contribution to Postcommunist Studies
Peng LÜ
Institute of Sociology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, 100732, P.R.China.
Abstract: Some scholars think that the term post-communism is now useless, because the outcomes of transition are consolidated in those former state socialist European countries. But ongoing economic, social, and political transformations in China negate the theory of “end of postcommunism”. Therefore, even after two decades of moving away from classical socialist system, post-communism is not a redundant concept. Instead, for comparative researches between Eastern Asia and East-Central Europe, to value the past of “actually existing socialism” and its “legacies” as a substantial explanatory variable would considerably contribute our understandings of their diversified trajectories and performances. Particularly, due to the current global economic downturn, it is proved again that a strong state involvement in – and even ownership of – certain sectors of the national economy is not synonymous with communist and authoritarian regimes. It forces us to admit that notions of end of transformation probably deserve the wastebasket.
Key Words: postcommunism; supercommunism; comparative analysis; China studies
Lu, Peng. 2012, “The End of Postcommunism? The Beginning of a Supercommunism? China’s New Perspective”, Polish Sociological Review, 3 (179), pp349-67
Download Link: Peng-Lu post-communism final
