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China Institutionalizing Collective Leadership
Following the Third Plenum, one of Deng Xiaoping's major reform
goals had been to produce an institutionalized and stable political
system that could promote economic development. Economic reform was
to be accompanied by political reform that would permit a greater
range of personal and intellectual choices and include the opening
up of debate on key issues of local and national concern.
A major part of this political reform had to do with
implementing the concept of collective leadership. The cult of
personality cultivated by Mao and those associated with him had
made Chinese society subject to the whim of an aging and
increasingly irrational revolutionary personality. To counter this
style and project an image of political maturity and regularity,
Deng declined to assume the party chairmanship. Even Hua Guofeng's
demotion from senior leadership positions was done gradually and
was cushioned by allowing Hua to retain his membership on the
Central Committee. Overall, Deng's objective was to invert the
practice of having power vested more in individuals than in
institutions and to modify a decision-making process that operated
by fiat, without regular procedures or an adequate information
base.
A major step toward institutionalizing collective leadership
was taken with the re-establishment of the party Secretariat in
1980
(see Secretariat
, ch. 10). Its formation permitted the
emplacement of promising younger leaders to manage and master dayto -day party affairs. Having supervisory authority over the various
Central Committee departments, the Secretariat could provide the
Political Bureau and its presiding Standing Committee with
additional expertise in making decisions. By 1987 the Secretariat
included eleven members, six of whom also served on the Political
Bureau. The broad experience of its membership covered all major
substantive areas, including party, government, and military
affairs, agriculture, the national economy and planning, culture
and propaganda, and industry and trade. In addition to drafting the
major policy resolutions for Political Bureau deliberation and then
supervising the implementation of party policy, the Secretariat
used its expertise and organizational standing to exert pressure on
the cumbersome Chinese bureaucracy to achieve the desired results.
The 1982 Party Constitution abolished the post of party
chairman and expanded the base of political authority to include
the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau, party general
secretary, chairman of the party's Central Military Commission,
first secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline
Inspection, and chairman of the Central Advisory Commission. The
premier also served on the Standing Committee, which thus included
in its policy-making ranks representatives of the three major
institutions--party, government, and military.
Another measure that promoted a more balanced distribution of
power was the strengthening of senior governmental bodies. As
premier, Zhao Ziyang presided over the State Council, a body
crucial to the implementation of economic reform measures and, like
the party Secretariat, supported by an abundance of research
institutions to aid in decision making
(see The State Council
, ch.
10). By 1987 the State Council, the chief administrative
organization of government and clearinghouse for government
actions, was composed of twenty-two members, including Premier Zhao
and five vice premiers who also served on the Political Bureau. Its
Standing Committee of seventeen included senior members with long
and recognized experience in all aspects of government. The State
Council directed the work of the various government ministries,
commissions, and agencies and verified that relevant party policies
were being implemented.
The process of easing out unwanted leaders was
institutionalized at the Twelfth National Party Congress in
September 1982. Deng Xiaoping developed and headed the new central
body, the party's Central Advisory Commission. Qualified members
with at least forty years of party service were honored by being
named to this body as consultants to the party and the government.
This institutional innovation was intended to remove the
superannuated veterans from real power positions while allowing
them to remain at least at the fringes of power.
Besides providing for the graceful retirement of old
revolutionary heroes and elderly leaders, at the Twelfth National
Party Congress the reform leadership successfully consolidated its
control of the party. Sixty percent of the members and alternate
members on the newly elected Central Committee were newcomers and
probable supporters of the reform program. Most of those elected
had professional and technical qualifications, fulfilling another
reform goal of infusing the bureaucracy with competent and talented
officials.
Data as of July 1987
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