Evaluation of China's Bureaucratic Reforms

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Abstract
Among the various reforms initiated by the post-Mao leadership in China, the most crucial for stability of the political leadership and continuity of the policy line is the bureaucratic reform. In the name of making the state apparatus more efficient for economic development, the central Party leaders promoted to leadership positions a new set of cadres who are “revolutionized, better educated, professionally competent, and younger.” This article evaluates the results of the reforms in three important organs: the Central Committee, the central government ministries, and the provincial Party secretaryship. The article finds that although a large number of the bureaucratic technocrats has replaced veteran cadres of the civil war era, the gains are temporary, and the regime's efforts to rationalize and institutionalize the personnel management further will encounter much more serious obstacles imposed by the structural conditions of the Leninist party-state.

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