Ringen, Stein the Perfect Dictatorship, Chapter 1
Chapter 1 Leaders Th e Chinese state is not just a state; it is a party-state. Th at sets it apart. It is not a democracy, obviously, but nor is it a bog-standard dictatorship in which typically a military junta holds power with force on behalf of itself or, say, a class of landowners. A party-state is more than a one-party dictatorship. It is a system with two over- powering bureaucracies, side by side and intertwined. Th e state controls society, and the party controls the state. Th ere is a double system of control. Control is this state’s nature. If it were not for a determination to control, there would be no rationale for the double system. And once there is a party-state, the determination to control is a given. Th e double system is an awesome structure, all the more so when in the hands of able leaders. Th e current leader, Xi Jinping, the general secretary of the party, the president of the nation, and the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, now China’s strong and domineering leader, is using the apparatus available to him with force and determination. A big and powerful country, a strong state, an ambitious and shrewd leader—that adds up to a force to be reckoned with. Th e rest of us had better understand what is going on. Party-states are dictatorships. All the known ones in history have been dicta- torships, and the remaining ones, including China, are dictatorships.1 Communist rule in China was dictatorial before the communists were in control of all of the country, established itself as a brute dictatorship nationally in 1949, and continued to be a deadly dictatorship under Mao.2 China today is a sophisticated dictatorship in which citizens are allowed many freedoms but only up to a point.
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