Die Transformation der Revolution. Politische Veränderungen in China nach Mao Zedong

Abstract This essay is a disquisition into the new policy advanced by the Chinese leadership around Hua Guofeng and Deng Xiaoping. Attention is focused on 'superstructural' phenomena. After giving an introduction to the political conditions of post Maoist China, the author first deals with the dismantlement of the "Mao Zedong-Ideas". Drawing a comparison with the Maoist era, he then describes and analyses the new leadership's educational policy as well as the "social spirit" of the present (eg. material incentives for the masses, the replacement of the Maoist cadre by functional administrators, the growing importance of specialists etc.). It is shown how fundamentally political practice of today is departing from the revolutionary Maoism of the past. The main thesis put forward in the essay: In present day China we witness the primateship of politics yielding to that of productivity. All forces are directed towards the ambitious programme of the "Four Modernizations"; - ideological pledges are being abandoned. Drawing on an ample source material, the author demonstrates how this political reversal is affecting the 'superstructural' sphere. He concludes by giving a prospect for possible social consequences of the present Chinese policy, for social and functional differentiation and the dawn of a new hierarchy.