Integration And Erosion: The State And Grassroots Cadres In Political Transition

The relationship between Central government and local community is a hot topic in political science. Takeing grass-roots cadres as the breakthrough point and placing its operation into a specific political scene of county, this article shows deconstructive and constructive integrations of the state into grass-roots cadres, as well as the anti-corrosion and digestion process of the grass-roots cadres to the state, which use flexible and corrupt behaviours. My study suggests that traditional analytical framework "state-peasants" and "state-the local gentry-peasants " can not explain the operation of the local politics after 1949. Therefore, we should construct the analytical framework of "state-the grass-roots cadres-peasants ".The basic idea and demonstrative the logic of this study are as follows:Tin the process of integration and transformation of the society, the Party which was full of revolutionary ideal and political passion was obstructed by the bureaucracy which is characterized by rationalization and specialization. Meanwhile, the deep-rooted aversion of the leaders to the bureaucracy promoted them to make use of political campaigns to clean up and shape the flexible and corrupt behaviours of the grass-roots cadres, so as to conform to the needs and political goals of the Party. In this process, the Chinese Communist Party played a critical and core position. With the establishment of integrated model between the Party and the government, the government became the executor of the state commands and policies, which the government agencies were fully subordinate to the Party.Political integration of the state consisted of deconstructive integration and constructive integration, which were interrelated, because the process of deconstructive integration was also the process of constructive integration. The deconstructive integration was mainly carried through mass political movements and other unconventional means to achieve, such as the repeated political campaigns during "Si Qing" and the Cultural Revolution. By bring the grassroots cadres into the scope of the integration, the object of political campaigns was directed to local authorities, and even elevated to the "class struggle" in height. Meanwhile, in order to overcome the bureaucratism, commandism and other bad behaviours such as corruptions, the state launched the campain of "go to the mountainous areas and the countryside" to remake the grass-roots cadres, which was a punitive way. As to the constructive integration, the state carried the repeated political indoctrination and high frequency of learning, which inculcated and strengthened the Party’s ideas, so as to become the basic norms of daily behavior. In order to mold the new socialist man which was "red and expert", the education campaigns enhanced the political cadres to a extreme level. In order to cut off the traditional elite reproduction chain, the state even canceled the College Entrance Examination, instead of the recommendation and selection which payed attention to the class origin and political conditions, so that the real loyalist could enter the state power system.However, the strengthening of state control did not completely eliminate the flexible and corrupt behaviours of the grassroots cadres. In a way, the expansion and corruption of the local authority may be caused by the weakening of the state. However, sometimes the local corruption can also be caused by the strengthening of state power. The state could eradicate separatism. but could not fundamentally eliminate the flexible and corrupt behaviours of the grass-roots cadres. This behaviours could be seen as the relief and response of high-intensity political control of the state. The grassroots cadres mastered some powers and resources, and regularly seek benefits for themselves, which led to the corruption as a widespread phenomenon. Meanwhile, confined to local traditions and local interests, the grassroots cadres eroded and digestted the states’efforts in practice, which used hidden mechanisms, and eventually gave birth to the fatigue and digestion of the revolution and the movement.Finally, we face the problem of how to understand the bureaucratic system. Bureaucracy is a administrative (managing) system which well-trained professionals operate continually in accordance with established rules. It is a neutral word meaning. However, in the collectivization period, it was often associated with a variety of ideological bias, and it was equated with the by-products which bureaucracy arising from its operation. It may cause system freezing and conservative. However, with its professional and rational ideas and the spirit, it can play a roll of "balancer" of the politics. The combination of the Party and bureaucracy in modern society is a effective path which can maintain continuous solidification but not petrification.