Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year"
"T
he Party and the People provides a wonderfully clear-eyed look at how the CCP has reinvented itself since 1989."
---Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Mekong Review"Dickson’s book gives a useful overview of the various bodies that run China and the party’s involvement in them. He also surveys a series of important questions, such as why the CCP doesn’t like civil society or religious groups. He is especially strong on the issue of nationalism, which many foreign observers assert is growing in China, especially among young people. Dickson gives a sure-footed assessment of public opinion data to show that this is not the case, and that young people are in fact less nationalistic than their parents’ generation."
---Ian Johnson, New York Review of Books"The Party and the People ... drafts a helpful balance sheet of the party’s strengths and weaknesses, giving readers a better understanding of how the CCP’s versatility enabled it to become the longest-ruling communist party in history."
---Orville Schell, Foreign Affairs"A good treatment of exactly what the title promises."
---Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution"An ideal text for college courses on Chinese politics, and the writing is fully accessible to general readers as well." * Choice *
"Bruce J. Dickson offers a comprehensive description of how China’s authoritarian political system operates. ... Dickson observes how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) manages to stay in power without the necessary elements of Western liberal democracy, such as individual rights, freedom of speech, and multiparty competitive elections."
---Wenfang Tang, American Affairs Journal"Dickson offers a comprehensive primer on how the CCP chooses leaders and makes policy, how it responds to political protests with repression both hard and soft, and how it may use or constrain the forces of nationalism based on what aids its political survival. ... In calm, lucid prose, Dickson traces the evolution of the CCP since 1949, focusing on the recent divergence between local and higher-level leaders."
---Nicolas Gattig, Japan Times"An authoritative survey of the major issues confronting China."
---Walter C. Clemens, Jr., New York Journal of Books"Very well balanced in evaluating factionalism and party ideology in the decision-making and personnel appointment processes. . . . [and] a good overview of how the CCP runs China, and how the CCP responded to different stakeholders in the country with a Top to Down Approach."
---Larry Ngan, Interlib"A tour de force in all its aspects, Dickson’s new book shows his mastery of relevant facts, nuances and scholarship on China, and an enviable power of synthesis marshalled for the benefit of a non-expert audience. The plethora of examples and the photos offered throughout the book recommend it as an engaging reading for the widest possible audience."
---Lavinia Stan, European Legacy
