Mao's Invisible Hand: The Political Foundations of Adaptive Governance in China
Sebastian Heilmann (editor), Elizabeth J. Perry (editor)What political techniques and procedures have Chinese policymakers employed to manage the unsettling impact of the fastest sustained economic expansion in world history?
As the authors of these essays demonstrate, China's political system allows for more diverse and flexible input than would be predicted from its formal structures.
Many contemporary methods of governance have their roots in techniques of policy generation and implementation dating to the revolution and early PRC—techniques that emphasize continual experimentation.
China's long revolution had given rise to this guerrilla-style decision-making as a way of dealing creatively with pervasive uncertainty.
Thus, even in a post-revolutionary PRC, the invisible hand of Chairman Mao—tamed, tweaked, and transformed—plays an important role in China's adaptive governance.