The Chinese Communist Party's Capacity to Rule ― Ideology, Legitimacy and Party Cohesion

This book studies the survival strategies of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Examining both the CCP's quest for popular legitimacy and its search for party cohesion, Zeng argues that ideological reform and the institutionalization of power succession are crucial factors in the party's retention of power. China's economic success has created a fundamental dilemma for the CCP: if a communist party does not deliver communism and class victory, why is it there at all? There is a potential contradiction between generating economic success by utilizing quasi-capitalist economic policies on the one hand, and the fact that this is a communist party that supposedly justifies its rule by being the vehicle to deliver a communist society on the other. This contradiction has proved a challenge to the CCP's rule, generating belief crises in Chinese society and ideological battles within the party. This book shows how the CCP has remained in power by continually revising the ideological basis that justifies its rule.

Dr Jinghan Zeng is Vice-Chancellor's 2020 Lecturer in Chinese Politics in the Department of Politics and Public Policy at De Montfort University, UK, and an Associate Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation at the University of Warwick, UK. His research and teaching interests lie in the field of Chinese politics and research methods, with more specific interests in the study of China's authoritarian system, elite politics of contemporary China, and Chinese foreign policy. His academic papers have appeared in International Affairs, Contemporary Politics, Journal of Contemporary China, and Journal of Chinese Political Science.