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A Study On The Secret Power Of Secretaries In Contemporary Chinese Politics

Posted on:2014-10-30Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:L HuanFull Text:PDF
GTID:1106330434471249Subject:Political Theory
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
This dissertation studies mishu elites in contemporary Chinese politics. Mishus often refer to the staff who provide organizational or personal service to theirs leaders or leadership group. And also mishus differ from each other regarding the functions they fulfill, the leadership bodies they serve, and the responsibilities given to them, though they are deemed as the same type of staff with similar characters. The mishu phenomenon has been often talked or debated in the public opinion, street gossip and media report because of mishu’s controversial role in Chinese politics. The traditional research, which can be divided into Mishu Study and Leadership Study, only mention about the instrumental role of mishu and ask for " what should mishu do", intentional or unintentional avoid the real question "what’s the real role of mishu in the Chinese political arena". That is partly because mishu is a work done behind-the-screen, and mishu is required to be humble, self-effacing and accommodating and it’s institutionally unappropriate if mishu positively affects the political process. The above facts limit the existing studies on mishu. Nevertheless, the author aims to explore the de facto power of mishu since a further understanding of mishu is necessary given the Chinese political characteristics.The organizational policy of CCP was reformed initially from the change of personnel system, which opened a new era of the intergenerational replacement of party power. The aim of the continuous reform of the nomenklatura system and leadership system lays in seeking out a regular and institutionalized mechanism for power replacement, and constructing a competent cadre team capable of supporting modern nation-building and party development. The author takes the previous Central Committee since the Opening-up as sample, and through analyzing the biographical chronology of the officials to find out the important role of the mishu elite in the power transformation in contemporary China. Among those who successfully climb to the upper part of political pyramid by promotion, a significant number of them possess the mishu background. The career start, vital promotion and officialdom turning point of many political elites is often closely related to their working experience as mishu. The post of mishu has commonly become a stepping-stone to leadership positions and the mishu experience often accelerates elite’s political career. The growing importance of mishu reminds the author to reexamine the currently popular technocratic theory and various explanatory patterns of competency in academic world. In explaining the promotional opportunity of mishu elite, we believe that in current appointments system under power-concentrated leadership structure, the upward movement of elite is characterized by the sponsorship of "party cultivation", which is to say that when the superior leaders and organizational department selecting cadre for appointment, they often choose those who meet the organizational purports based on multiple considerations.By applying the sociological inquiry on elite transformation, we bring forward the theoretical framework of "party cultivation". Under this framework, the author points out that the mishu elite is particularly capable of earning party’s favor because of their special political character and occupational conditions. The unique positions of closeness to the power hub provides them the opportunities and symbolic identity of fostering comprehensive political capability, revealing political loyalty and building guanxi capital. To this end, the author then examines the role of mishu elite in political transition and political process from three perspectives, namely political competence, political loyalty and guanxi capital respectively.A striking contrast is that mishu is institutionally constrained to be subordinate to leadership and only provides routine assistance needed, but the underlying power of mishu is prevalent to some extent throughout those routine works because of reasons when we explicitly examine the concrete process of politics. Significantly, mishu’s responsibilities of providing services to leadership, writing manuscripts, arranging conferences, communicating hierarchy and advising leaders actually influence the information flow, political communication and agenda arrangement in reality. Furthermore, the flexibility and adaptability of the mishu institution is benefit to consolidate, centralize the power of leadership and makes the entire party-state apparatuses work. From the aspect of mishu, he/she is gradually trained and cultivated some useful skills which are indispensable to be leaders in the future, such as the expertise to deal with intractable affairs, the experience of handling emergency, the art to make a harmonious personal relationship, and long-term political vision and other secrets of success. We name all the above skills " political competence" and use this term to explain why mishu has more opportunity to become leaders than other staff. The author also emphasizes the importance of political loyalty in the terms of promotion. Obviously, political loyalty is a valuable and desirable moral in any political regimes, that is more remarkable to Chinese politics and the elite who hope to achieve a higher hierarchy. Under this circumstances, the author distinguishes three dimensions of political loyalty, which represent to be loyal to party ideology, institutional policy and personal nepotism respectively. As the complexity of political process, those three dimensions of political loyalty often entangle with each other and are inclined to be evaluated by superiors’ intention and judgment. Thereby, mishu is easily considered as more loyal because he/she keeps a close relationship with his/her leaders. As a peculiar occupation, mishu often suggests a symbol of keeping loyalty to their leaders and the entire political system. In addition to that, this dissertation also insists on the importance of guanxi capital to elite transformation. The findings of research reveal that mishu’s promotion has a close relatios with the guanxi capital that mishu establishes and accumulates. In other words, the good interpersonal guanxi between mishu and leadership can strengthen the career potential of mishu under the appointment system.In terms of empirical material, the author uses publicly obtained officials biography, official documents, media report and the researcher’s interviews with some mishus of W province, then is determined to reveal the significant role of mishu elite in contemporary Chinese politics by providing a theoretical inquiry. However, the author have to admit that owing to the uniqueness and complexness of the study subject, this research is proved to be extremely challenging and difficult, and need more insightful analyses by latecomer.
Keywords/Search Tags:mishu elite, power, political competence, political loyalty, guanxicapital, political promotion
PDF Full Text Request
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