Restoring a One-Party Regime in China: a Study of Party Branches, 1964-1978.

The dissertation examines the evolution of the primary party organization (PPO) of the Chinese Communist Party over a fourteen-year time period, 1964-1978, and compares central-level policies with policy implementation in three Party branches. Specifically, it examines the rebuilding of Party branches in (1) a middle school, (2) a teaching and research group, and (3) a production brigade. The thesis traces the fate of all Party members in the three branches as the branches came under attack during the 1966-1967 early stages of the Cultural Revolution, ceased their normal functions during the 1967-1971 heyday of Military Control Commissions (MCC), Revolutionary Committees (RC), and the Worker-Peasant-Soldier Mao Zedong Thought Propag and a Teams (MTPT), and gradually resumed their roles in the 1971-1978 reconstruction. The Party branch in each organization experienced a five-stage sequence of development which reflected central-level policy: (1) Party paralysis, (2) temporary leadership, (3) establishment of a revolutionary committee, (4) reconstruction of the Party branch, and (5) replacement of the revolutionary committee with the former administrative committee. However, the three branches differed considerably in such crucial ways as the precise time they entered each stage of this five-step sequence, the extent of disruption experienced during the Cultural Revolution, the degree of post-Cultural Revolution tension within the branch, and the continuity in the post-1976 branch personnel with pre-1966 branch leadership and membership. This variation among the three branches, the thesis tentatively concludes, is explained in terms of four major factors that influenced the process of rebuilding a Party branch: (1) its organizational context, (2) its degree of autonomy, (3) its leaders' personal reactions, and (4) its recent history. In addition to this major finding, the thesis illuminates the complex relationship between the PPO and Party members on the one h and and the MCCs, RCs, and MTPTs on the other. It reveals a surprising continuity in branch membership and individual functions while also shedding light on the process of recruitment during these years. The net result is an enhanced underst and ing both of why PPOs were able to resume their old roles so rapidly in the post-Mao era and why lingering tensions and "the rush recruits" in PPOs encouraged top leaders to launch a rectification campaign in the Party in 1983.PhDPolitical scienceUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/159710/1/8402250.pd