Mao As Philosopher King (Ideology And Organization In Communist China, by Franz Schurmann)
Schrecker, John
104 IDEOLOGY AND ORGANIZATION IN COMMUNIST CHINA, by Franz Schurmann. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. 540 pp. $12.50. Franz Schurmann's book appeared just as the long...
...This reluctance to acknowledge the importance of ideology is more indicative of the biases of our own liberal, pragmatic society than it is helpful in understanding Communist China According to Schurmann, the essence of Maoism is its commitment to the dialectical concept of contradictions as the only suitable method for dealing with China's problems...
...This is an important point overlooked by many other writers on contemporary China...
...If Schurmann's analysis of the Great Leap is correct, for example, it would appear that logical categories, frequently uninformed by technical knowledge and carried to extreme lengths, led to the adoption of policies that were both gratuitous and destructive...
...After the failure of the Great Leap, the Chinese did not return to the earlier Soviet models...
...He explains this omission by saying that, since they conceive of the Party as the organizational expression of the will of the people, to admit such a contradiction would be "akin to a Hegelian negation of the self...
...Thereafter, China began to veer away from Soviet practices in a policy shift which ultimately culminated in the Great Leap Forward...
...The Great Leap may have set the Chinese economy back for years, and the real possibility that such a mistake could be repeated is disheartening...
...But his excellent case histories demonstrate its importance, particularly in the considerations that led to the crucial shift away from Soviet models of organization...
...His book is massive, detailed, and frequently difficult to read...
...Franz Schurmann's book appeared just as the long overdue reexamination of America's China policy began...
...it can coordinate society and yet fight bureaucracy...
...It is this particular desire for power embedded in the Maoist ideology which Schurmann tends most to understress...
...This has been apparent in its uneven record in the most critical area of all—economic development...
...Thus, Mao believes that the Party can be both red and expert...
...Although these goals are implicit in Schurmann's analysis, he should have discussed them in detail...
...for they serve to direct and to limit the dialectical elements in Maoist ideology and, hence, they influence decisively the whole course of China's development...
...The recent attacks on the Party during the Cultural Revolution may indicate that Mao feels his hopes were misplaced...
...The timing could hardly have been more opportune...
...Schurmann points out that the most 105 remarkable achievement of Maoist ideology is the Communists' success in organizing Chinese society...
...JOHN SCHRECKER...
...There have been organizational problems because of Mao's dialectical conception of China and his desire to emphasize contradiction and struggle...
...instead, they adopted a rather pragmatic approach to planning, although they continued to espouse the ideological formulations of the Great Leap...
...For Schurmann has produced the most significant study to date of contemporary China, a book valuable to both specialists and laymen...
...But Schur mann also portrays the dialectical viewpoint of the Chinese as more ingenuous than it really is...
...He has limited his discussion to the period before 1961, on the fair assumption that most of the important features delineating Chinese Communism were evident by then...
...106 Thus, Mao is committed to a radically collectivist and egalitarian view of the ideal society, a position which seriously curtails his economic options...
...This is true, but specific political considerations must also have led to the decision to limit dialectical theorizing...
...it can permit decentralization without the loss of control...
...The reader should be warned, however, that Schurmann is no popularizer...
...There are contradictions in economics, as that between agricultural and industrial development...
...it will work hard but not demand incentives...
...It is also full of Chinese phrases and frequent digressions on sociological theory...
...and he demonstrates that the Leap was the result of the Chairman's attempt to compensate for or to overcome the contradictions which he felt had developed by that time...
...contradictions in politics, as that of democracy and centralism...
...He shows that, until the middle fifties, the Chinese followed Russian models of organization...
...his tendency to truncate discussions of the Chinese ideology excludes a consideration of its broader goals...
...For half a century before the Communist victory, Chinese nationalists and modernizers of all political persuasions cursed their country's fragmentation and compared it bitterly to a "sheet of loose sand...
...Schurmann insists that it is necessary to understand the explicit ideology of the Chinese leaders in order to comprehend their actions...
...But the system holds together...
...it has mobilized the nation down to the lowest levels...
...Mao's analysis of contemporary China posits the existence of a great variety of contradictions...
...He mentions the Chinese leaders' failure to discuss the contradiction they feel exists between the Party and the masses...
...A dialectical method of thought is, of course, common to most Marxists...
...and contradictions in society, as those among the different classes...
...Schurmann devotes the bulk of his book to the description of the development and structure of Chinese organization...
...Mao, evidently, hopes that the Party—made up of cadres imbued with the correct perspective and continually subject to discipline and rectification—can overcome other contradictions inherent in his vision...
...There are contradictions of value, such as the struggle between "redness" and expertise...
...They have tended to favor a "tougher" approach, relying often on economic determinism...
...Schurmann has demonstrated the role of ideology in contemporary China...
...Schurmann also avoids discussing the role of power in his description of Chinese organization...
...The book is the product of the erudition and insight of an outstanding scholar and provides a comprehensive viewpoint for understanding China today...
...Indeed, Mao sets a great premium on social tension and is committed to the belief that no society can progress without it...
...Becalise he wishes for a high degree of power, for himself and his advisors, the forms of political activity he believes possible and desirable are also severely limited...
...The Maoist regime has put an end to this atomization...
...But the achievement of such objectives is encountering needless difficulties primarily because of the controls and tensions generated by the ideology itself...
...In his dedication to this method, however, Mao often seems more like a neo-Hegelian philosopher than a practicing Communist politician...
...Recently, it seems that organization may again be brought into closer alignment with ideology...
...This seems an understatement...
...He deals successively with the Party, the government, techniques of management and control, and the administration of the cities and villages...
...In this task its ideology has cemented unity, suggested institutional structures, and provided methods of administration...
...Indeed, very few Marxist theoreticians have pursued dialectics with Mao's zeal and consistency and none have come near to possessing his political power...
...Schumann intimates that the Maoist ideology of contradictions is simplistic...
...Schurmann analyzes Mao's conceptualization of Chinese society in 1957...
...The crucial problem now seems to be whether the Maoist ideology, which has contributed effectively to revolutionize and organize China, can achieve other positive results...
...The most striking feature of the Chinese approach to organization has been the role of the Party, which has achieved more power in China than in any other Communist Country...
...Maoist ideology requires a degree of control over the populace and a level of continuous tension within society that might be justified if other goals, especially economic ones, were being efficiently achieved...
...He had to be selective in dealing with his vast subject, and he has concentrated on two fundamental elements of the Communist regime: its ideology and organization...
...Obviiously, a wide variety of benefits have accrued to the Chinese people from successful organization...
...Regarding this last category, for example, the Chinese ridicule the Soviet contention that there are no further class struggles or social contradictions within a socialist society...
...Nevtrtheless, it would appear that Maoism, with its dogmatic simplicity and particular set of goals, is poorly suited to attain worthwhile results beyond those which follow directly from organizing the country...
Vol. 14 • January 1967 • No. 1
