Lawrence R. Sullivan is professor of political science at Adelphi University in Garden City, New York and a research associate at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University. He is the author most recently of Historical Dictionary of the Chinese Communist Party (Scarecrow Press, 2011) and HistoricalDictionaryofthePeople’sRepublicofChina (Scarecrow Press, 2007) and a co-translator and co-editor of ZhouEnlai: The LastPerfectRevolutionary by Gao Wenjian (Public Affairs, 2007).

Sullivan (Adelphi Univ.) seeks to examine the interplay between personal leadership and the primacy of organization and collective deliberation within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which shaped many of the policy and ideological controversies throughout the party's history. Chapters 1-2 offer an overview of the concepts of authority and despotism and how they were understood in China in the late-18th and early-19th centuries. Chapter 3 looks into political authority in the CCP before the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. Chapters 4-5 review the intraparty struggle over leadership and authority from the early years of the PRC until the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976. Chapter 6 brings up the "question of Mao" and asks whether a single leader will once again reign supreme over Chinese society and politics. In conclusion, Sullivan argues that despite a series of institutional and organizational reforms in the post-Mao era, "whether these changes can avoid the dire predictions of a return to the Maoist-style of leadership remains to be seen." Summing Up: Recommended. Undergraduate, graduate, and research collections.

• IntroductionChapter 1: The Problem of “Feudal Despotism” in Marx and ChinaChapter 2: Intellectual and Political Controversies Over Authority:1895-1922Chapter 3: Political Authority in the Chinese Communist Party, Theory and Practice: 1921-1949Chapter 4: The Struggle Over Leadership and Authority in the CCP, I: 1949-1959Chapter 5: The Struggle Over Leadership and Authority in the CCP, II: 1959-1976Chapter 6: Epilogue: On the "Question of Mao"Conclusion

Lawrence R. Sullivan is professor of political science at Adelphi University in Garden City, New York and a research associate at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University. He is the author most recently of Historical Dictionary of the Chinese Communist Party (Scarecrow Press, 2011) and HistoricalDictionaryofthePeople’sRepublicofChina (Scarecrow Press, 2007) and a co-translator and co-editor of ZhouEnlai: The LastPerfectRevolutionary by Gao Wenjian (Public Affairs, 2007).

Sullivan (Adelphi Univ.) seeks to examine the interplay between personal leadership and the primacy of organization and collective deliberation within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which shaped many of the policy and ideological controversies throughout the party's history. Chapters 1-2 offer an overview of the concepts of authority and despotism and how they were understood in China in the late-18th and early-19th centuries. Chapter 3 looks into political authority in the CCP before the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. Chapters 4-5 review the intraparty struggle over leadership and authority from the early years of the PRC until the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976. Chapter 6 brings up the "question of Mao" and asks whether a single leader will once again reign supreme over Chinese society and politics. In conclusion, Sullivan argues that despite a series of institutional and organizational reforms in the post-Mao era, "whether these changes can avoid the dire predictions of a return to the Maoist-style of leadership remains to be seen." Summing Up: Recommended. Undergraduate, graduate, and research collections.

• IntroductionChapter 1: The Problem of “Feudal Despotism” in Marx and ChinaChapter 2: Intellectual and Political Controversies Over Authority:1895-1922Chapter 3: Political Authority in the Chinese Communist Party, Theory and Practice: 1921-1949Chapter 4: The Struggle Over Leadership and Authority in the CCP, I: 1949-1959Chapter 5: The Struggle Over Leadership and Authority in the CCP, II: 1959-1976Chapter 6: Epilogue: On the "Question of Mao"Conclusion

Lawrence R. Sullivan is professor of political science at Adelphi University in Garden City, New York and a research associate at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University. He is the author most recently of Historical Dictionary of the Chinese Communist Party (Scarecrow Press, 2011) and HistoricalDictionaryofthePeople’sRepublicofChina (Scarecrow Press, 2007) and a co-translator and co-editor of ZhouEnlai: The LastPerfectRevolutionary by Gao Wenjian (Public Affairs, 2007).

Sullivan (Adelphi Univ.) seeks to examine the interplay between personal leadership and the primacy of organization and collective deliberation within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which shaped many of the policy and ideological controversies throughout the party's history. Chapters 1-2 offer an overview of the concepts of authority and despotism and how they were understood in China in the late-18th and early-19th centuries. Chapter 3 looks into political authority in the CCP before the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. Chapters 4-5 review the intraparty struggle over leadership and authority from the early years of the PRC until the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976. Chapter 6 brings up the "question of Mao" and asks whether a single leader will once again reign supreme over Chinese society and politics. In conclusion, Sullivan argues that despite a series of institutional and organizational reforms in the post-Mao era, "whether these changes can avoid the dire predictions of a return to the Maoist-style of leadership remains to be seen." Summing Up: Recommended. Undergraduate, graduate, and research collections.

• IntroductionChapter 1: The Problem of “Feudal Despotism” in Marx and ChinaChapter 2: Intellectual and Political Controversies Over Authority:1895-1922Chapter 3: Political Authority in the Chinese Communist Party, Theory and Practice: 1921-1949Chapter 4: The Struggle Over Leadership and Authority in the CCP, I: 1949-1959Chapter 5: The Struggle Over Leadership and Authority in the CCP, II: 1959-1976Chapter 6: Epilogue: On the "Question of Mao"Conclusion